Disney launched their highly anticipated streaming service, Disney+ very recently. Disney announced that the service accumulated over 10 million subscriptions on launch day alone. That figure is staggering by any standard, however, it is more impressive when you learn that Disney were forecasting to have between 10 and 18 million subscribers in its first year.While the majority of things ran smoothly for Disney+ throughout its opening day, the service did encounter some significant issues. BBC report that an estimated 4,000 Disney+ accounts were hacked during launch day.Now, 4,000 accounts out of 10 million is a very small percentage. 0.04% to be exact. However, that’s not the point. The point is that Disney, one of the largest and wealthiest organisations in the world, did not take all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of their users’ Disney+ accounts. Its not like they can’t afford the best security out there. Disney are projected to earn a net profit of over $69 billion dollars for 2019.The select few subscribers who were unfortunate enough to be in the 0.04% that had their accounts hacked, noted that their email addresses and passwords had been changed. These subscribers complained numerous times to Disney over various forms of social media, however, Disney took the coward’s way out and did not respond to their queries.The hacked accounts reportedly appeared on the dark web later on during launch day, being sold off for a measly $3. It is still unknown as to why these accounts were hacked, considering that a subscription is $7 in the US. These hackers clearly would not make good accountants. It is assumed that the buyers of these hacked accounts are from regions where Disney+ is not yet available. For the sake of $4 and a couple of extra weeks, you would think that the buyers could wait.Disney is staggering the release dates of Disney+ for various major regions. It launched in the US and Canada on November 12th. It launched in Australia and New Zealand on November 19th. It is not set to release in the UK and Ireland and other major European countries until March 31st, 2020. The reasoning behind the staggered release dates is not clear. However, if the service launched in every country in roughly the same time period, it is safe to assume that subscribers’ accounts would not be hacked.The hackers and buyers are probably just some sad Marvel or Star Wars fans, who couldn’t wait a couple of weeks to watch The Mandalorian. I like Star Wars as much as the next person, but I am more than willing to wait just a couple of months to watch it.The actions of these pathetic hackers have caused people to be locked out of their personal email accounts, most of which probably contain very important, personal information. And Disney, at the time of writing, are doing nothing about it. This is a very poor move, or lack of, from Disney, to not respond to these unfortunate subscribers. It wouldn’t take them more than a couple of minutes to simply respond to the subscriber queries, saying something as simple as “We’re working on trying to fix the problem”. As stated previously, it’s not as if they can’t afford to implement the best security programmes. If the BBC can find the hacked accounts on the dark web, there is no way in hell that Disney didn’t know about it before the story leaked.We all already know that Disney are just another money hungry, ruthless corporation. Don’t be fooled by the family friendly, heart-warming facade they put on. Behind the scenes are a bunch of success craving, money hungry leaches that will suck every penny out of you if you gave them the chance. And this proves it. Disney did not care enough about the 4,000 subscribers to fix the problem, or better yet, simply respond to them upon their initial enquiry. Once Disney got the money from their subscriptions, that was that. That’s where the relationship began and ended between Disney and the subscribers, as far as Disney were concerned.Disney should not be let off the hook for this. Not until the hacked accounts are retrieved and the subscribers’ email accounts are returned to them.
