The Walt Disney Company and its owned ABC television station in Houston, KTRK, will commit $1 million to the American Red Cross for its Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, the company announced Tuesday.
Additionally, the Disney|ABC Television Group (DATG) will host a “Day of Giving” to benefit those impacted by the hurricane, a Category 4 storm. “Good Morning America” and local ABC affiliates will start the program in the morning, with ABC, Freeform, Radio Disney and DATG social media platforms having a call-to-action to donate to the Red Cross during the rest of the day.
“Our hearts go out to everyone in the devastating path of this historic storm,” said Robert A. Iger, chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company. “It’s hard to fully appreciate the impact, in part because it isn’t over yet. But we know thousands of people have lost everything and now face the daunting challenge of putting their lives and communities back together, and we’re using our unique resources and reach to help those in need.”
Eligible Disney employee donations to the American Red Cross and other qualified organizations involved in the relief will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Disney Employee Matching Gifts: A Program of The Walt Disney Company Foundation.
Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4, made landfall on Friday. So far, nine people are dead, although some outlets, including Fox News, have reported 14 dead, with an unknown number of people injured and left homeless. Over the weekend, multiple people from the Houston area took to the internet to post photos of their flooded homes, hoping to draw the attention of rescue crews or other help.
The Washington Post reports that an estimated 30,000 people will be forced from their homes due to flooding.
Hollywood's Biggest Brands Haunted by Hackers, From HBO to Disney (Photos)
Since the high-profile hack of Sony Pictures in 2014, cybersecurity has become one of Hollywood's top concerns as more studios and networks continue to become prime targets.
The biggest and most consequential hack to hit Hollywood was the Sony Pictures hack of 2014. Spurred by the studio's then-upcoming comedy "The Interview," about a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-Un, North Korean hackers were able to access employee information, emails, unreleased projects and other damaging information.
Sony
Netflix fell victim to a hack in 2017 when a group called "The Dark Overlord" stole episodes of "Orange Is the New Black" from a post-production house. When the streamer failed to meet ransom demands, the group released 10 episodes of the series weeks ahead of the scheduled premiere.
Netflix
After The Dark Overlord successfully released "Orange Is the New Black," the group took to Twitter promising to target other companies next. The group named ABC its next target in a vague tweet, but did not specify which show or shows it was threatening to release.
ABC
When The Dark Overlord took "Orange Is the New Black" from Larson Studios, it also reportedly made off with other unaired shows, including "NCIS: Los Angeles" and "Portlandia." ABC, NBC, FX, National Geographic, E!, Disney Channel and Lifetime were also contacted by the FBI, who was investigating the incident, to notify them that their work may have been compromised.
CBS
Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed in a company town hall meeting that the film studio had received a ransom demand from a hacker who claimed to have stolen one of their unreleased films. Reports said the pirated film was "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," though it was never released. Iger later said in an interview that he believed it to be a hoax.
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UTA suffered a "malware incident" in April, in which hackers held the company's computer systems hostage, demanding payment in bitcoin. Meetings were canceled and pushed, with the talent agency effectively shut down as the company raced to respond. Outside investigators concluded that no sensitive information was compromised.
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The Sundance Film Festival also suffered a cyberattack in 2017. The box office was forced to go offline for roughly 40 minutes as the festival responded to the situation, but no screenings were affected by the outage. "Our artist's voices will be heard and the show will go on," the festival said in a statement.
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In the middle of the seventh season run of its biggest hit "Game of Thrones," HBO suffered a cyber breach in which hackers reportedly obtained a copy of the script for an upcoming episode. Unaired episodes of "Ballers" and "Room 104" were also stolen and released online.
HBO
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Since 2014’s massive Sony hack, Hollywood continues to be compromised
Since the high-profile hack of Sony Pictures in 2014, cybersecurity has become one of Hollywood's top concerns as more studios and networks continue to become prime targets.