• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 17, 2024

Have we just become numb, dulled -- and maybe even bored -- by the news of data breaches? And now attention shifts to those incidents involving media/communications companies.

Your TV and media dollars at work.

On Monday there was news that Walt Disney's internal business and consumer data was hacked to the scope of more than “one terabyte,” according to reports from the company. 

A hacker group called NullBulge claimed responsibility -- to back efforts in protecting artists' rights to ensure fair compensation for their work, as well as “disregard for the consumer,” according to The Wall Street Journal, which had contact with the group.

What data? Internal communications stuff related to studio technology and interview candidates -- and yes, advertising campaigns. 

A month before, AT&T said there was a hack of “nearly all” its wireless customers. But no worries -- this hack didn't grab any content of customers' messages. So only the credit card data being stolen? Nice.

In May, Live Nation took it on the chin with hackers selling user data on the dark web. Before that it was Roku's turn, when a million and half accounts were broken into.

Columnists and opinionists have been ruminating over data breaches for years. For consumers, they may be just shrugging their shoulders in response.

Hackers and standup companies have got some of your data that they shouldn't have. What can you do?

Streaming dollars -- subscription or otherwise -- connected to your data by way of Disney+ or Roku's streaming operating system could be in the hands of bad actors. And maybe even viewing data. 

All this could be an argument for returning to legacy pay TV systems -- cable, satellite, telco -- where you had only one TV bill to worry about. These days, there are a lot of subscriptions to all types of media where more spillage can happen.

So any connection -- small as it might be -- to any type of digital video advertising fraud must be considered -- in many niches of the expanding TV-digital-streaming-CTV world. 

NullBulge activists are trying to find solace and support for struggling artists. Maybe some of those bad actors really want to know what TV shows you are watching-- and for how long. 

Supporting actors, at best -- looking for leading starring roles.