Disney kicks Slack to the curb, looks to Microsoft Teams for a happily ever after

There's no fairy tale ending for Slack at entertainment behemoth Disney following reports that the Salesforce-owned messaging service will be ditched in favor of Microsoft Teams.

A 1.1 TB file, allegedly collated from Disney's internal Slack archive, was published by a group calling itself "Nullbulge" in July, apparently in protest over artist rights. According to Wired, the group had insider access and exposed data including messages, information about internal projects, and employees' personal details.

Regardless of the veracity of the group's claims, it appears that Disney's employees are to receive the worst punishment possible - a migration to Microsoft Teams.

According to Business Insider, a leaked internal memo confirmed the decision. By the end of Q1 FY25, most staff will be moved onto Microsoft's messaging platform. Everyone should be there by the end of Q2.

Many Disney employees are unhappy about the switch, with some worrying it was more about saving costs than anything else, or that the transition would break longstanding integrations. One wrote: "Teams is horrible."

Shifting to Teams will undoubtedly be a wrench for those accustomed to a particular way of working.

At the time of the alleged leak, Element CEO Matthew Hodgson went into sale pitch mode, saying: "Disney's reported Slack breach tells the story of what happens when organisations prioritize popular but intrinsically insecure platforms over genuine security and data sovereignty.

"It's jaw-dropping that organizations continue to use outdated centralized communications platforms that don't provide end-to-end encryption. It's the same with email; if an attacker gets inside they have access to everything.

"Disney needs to invest in decentralized, end-to-end encrypted communications to ensure there's no sequel."

Of this latest development, Hodgson told The Register: "It appears the breach wasn't enough for Disney to prioritize secure communications. It's moved from one insecure platform to another - Microsoft Teams."

We asked Microsoft, Slack, and Disney to comment and will update with any responses. In the meantime, the warning has to be: Don't mess with the House of Mouse. ®