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Just Days After Launch, Thousands of Disney Plus Accounts Hacked

By Laura Tucker
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There has been much excitement over the Disney+ streaming service launch. Disney has made so many of their classic movies and television shows available, along with Marvel and Star Wars movies, National Geographic content, and more. It seems to have made more of a splash than Apple TV+.

But in technology, success isn’t always a good thing, as success attracts scammers and hackers. Disney+ has attracted the hackers. Thousands of accounts have already been hacked, just days after its debut, with accounts being sold online for as little as $3 apiece.

Disney+ Hack

A ZDNet investigation found that within hours of the Disney+ launch, hackers were already at work and selling the accounts online for anywhere from $3 to $11.

Not that that was the only problem after the launch of Disney+ on November 12. Success was crazy. It’s only open to the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands, yet more than 10 million customers joined up in the first 24 hours. But there were also technical issues right off the bat with some users unable to stream content.

But along with those complaints were many reporting that hackers accessed their accounts, logged them out, then changed the email and password on the accounts, locking them out.

There were many users like the person who posted on Twitter that “Disney+ has been open for like 10 hours, and my account has already been hacked.”

News Disney Hack Content

Another posted, “My account got hacked and email/password changed. Thankfully, I cancelled my subscription before the hack,” and one tweeted that their friend’s account was hacked, and “now she’s completely blocked from three-year prepaid Disney+ account. She’s been on hold for >2 hours.”

Two users spoke with ZDNet and admitted to reusing passwords, while other users reported they had not and used unique passwords for their Disney+ account.

This makes it appear there are multiple attacks in place. While some hackers are using email and password combinations that have been leaked on other sites, malware may have stolen the credentials of other accounts.

Ads popped within hours of the Disney+ launch selling the accounts for anything from $3 to $11, with hacking forums being flooded with the ads. Sharing of accounts is being advertised for free.

No Sure Prevention

The worst part is there is no surefire way of preventing your Disney+ account from being hacked. If you use a unique username and password, you can help prevent those attacks, but you won’t stop the other. You’re really just mitigating the chance of being hacked.

The other new streaming site, Apple TV+, isn’t as popular right now but because of that also doesn’t have the hacking attempts. And traditionally, Apple keeps data locked down tighter anyway.

Was your Disney+ account hacked? If not, what are you doing to prevent it? Share your woes in the comments below..

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Laura Tucker Avatar
Laura Tucker
Laura has spent more than 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with the majority of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past 35 years. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.

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