The Walt Disney Company has announced it will discontinue the use of Slack for internal communication, following a significant data breach in July that exposed over a terabyte of company data.
The transition away from Slack will affect most of Disney’s business units and is expected to be completed by the end of the company’s next fiscal quarter.
In a memo obtained by CNBC, Disney Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston informed employees and cast members of the move. Disney had already begun implementing new enterprise-wide collaboration tools before the breach but has now formalised the shift following the security incident.
The July hack exposed a wide range of sensitive data, including financial information, proprietary computer codes, and details on unreleased projects.
Despite the scale of the breach, Disney assured investors in August that the incident would not have a material impact on its operations or financial performance.
While Disney will no longer use Slack, the company will continue to utilise other Salesforce products across various areas of its business, such as the Disney store, guides, sales and service operations, and call centers.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, speaking during an interview at the company’s Dreamforce conference said, “Our security is rock solid,” noting that companies must also protect themselves from phishing and social engineering attacks.
