Siblings of Disney Engineer Named in Alleged Hack Defend His Innocence: ‘He Did Nothing Wrong, and His Entire Family Has Been Ruined’

In July, hackers claimed they had access to over a terabyte of Disney internal communications. The hackers allege they had the help of a man on the ‘inside,’ whose personal information they posted to their website. Whether or not a breach actually occurred has not been independently verified. The named employee, Matthew Van Andel, of Los Angeles, has maintained he was an unwitting victim. Now, his siblings have spoken to the Los Angeles Post to present their perspective and an attempt to clear his name.

Christa Maier and Stephen Van Andel, Matthew’s siblings, say hackers gained access to his personal device without him through malware embedded in a well-known AI image generator. “It was a tool that they had initially downloaded just to have fun with the children,” Maier says. “But it was polluted with something, and this would not become apparent until many months later, when they were mining data.”

NullBulge, the group allegedly behind the attack, describes itself as a collective of ‘hacktivists.’ The group claims to stand for the rights of artists, and against companies using tools like AI and cryptocurrency, which, they assert, are violations of these rights. Social media posts detailing similar actions by the NullBulge have appeared online in the past. However, experts suggest their stated justification may serve as an ideological cover for an operation seeking financial gain.

Accordingly, Maier claims the hackers did not target Matthew based on his employer. In fact, she says the group’s initial actions were consistent with simple extortion. 

“They initially started stealing a lot of credit card data and banking information — the normal things,” Maier explains. “But then they realized where he worked and they were like, ‘we can have some additional fun with this.’”

In their initial leak, NullBulge referred to Matthew as their “inside man,” and claimed they released his personal information in retaliation after he cut off their access. His siblings contend that Matthew had no knowledge of the matter. According to Maier and Stephen, the group threatened to release the information they had allegedly gained on Matthew and his employer, in an attempt to ruin his reputation. They claim Matthew alerted his employer, the FBI, and local police as soon as he became aware of the potential attack.

Reporting from the time of the attack indicates the supposed breach resulted in the posting of 1.1 terabytes of what are claimed to be Disney Slack messages to NullBulge’s website. The hackers claim this includes login credentials, proprietary code, and unreleased projects. They also allegedly released personal information on Matthew, including medical records, personal passwords, and a large amount of other private data.

In the aftermath, the family states that Matthew was terminated by his employer. Between his loss of income, legal fees, and the financial consequences of the alleged attack, Matthew and his immediate family have fallen into difficult financial straits.

“He’s put in over a hundred applications. Even with his amazing resume, the current situation is not good,” Maier says. “To be able to not lose where they’re living, to be able to afford their health insurance — he has health problems — it isn’t cheap, and they’re fighting it now.” 

Though the Van Andel family has retained a lawyer to pursue legal action against the hackers, they have no way to gain restitution in the near future.

Maier and Stephen have set up a GoFundMe to raise money for their brother’s personal and legal expenses. “At this point, they have nothing left. They’re barely scraping by,” Maier says. “And they’ve already cut out everything that wasn’t necessary.”

Ultimately, the siblings acknowledge they face a challenging legal fight, given the resources of both the hacker group and Matthew’s former employer. “We talked to some legal representatives that are like, ‘you can't win this because the players at hand are so powerful.’” 

They also express concern about potential retaliation from NullBulge. “You're afraid of the hackers themselves, just as individuals. What if they come after us?” 

Nevertheless, they feel compelled to speak in order to help their brother in any way that they can.

Readers wishing to support Matthew’s recovery can do so through his GoFundMe.

This story is ongoing, and will be updated as new developments emerge.