Former Disney employee admits to hacking menu system to change allergy information

A former Disney employee who was fired for misconduct has admitted to hacking the company’s menu-making software to change key details, including food allergy information that could be dangerous to customers at the company’s restaurants. resort.

A complaint filed by the Department of Justice last year claimed that a man named Michael Scheuer had committed a variety of computer crimes after being fired from the company he worked for. The affected company was not named in the complaint, although additional reports revealed that the company is Disney. Now, it has been reported that Scheuer, who previously worked as the company’s “Menu Production Manager,” has admitted to the cyber crimes in question as part of a plea deal.

Court guard reports that Scheuer agreed to pay Disney restitution as well as a government fine. Scheuer’s attorney, David Haas, said: “Mr. Scheuer is willing to accept responsibility for his behavior. Unfortunately, he has mental health issues that were exacerbated when Disney fired him upon his return from the paternity leave.” Haas added: “No one was ever at risk of injury and he is deeply remorseful for what happened.”

When reached by Gizmodo for comment, Haas confirmed Court Watch’s report, while noting that no plea date had been set. The arraignment date is the date on which a defendant actually enters a guilty plea, after a plea agreement has been made between the defense attorney and the prosecutor.

Scheuer’s attacks on the company allegedly took place over a three-month period. During that time, he “manipulated the menus of restaurants owned and operated by” Disney, the original complaint said. The most “benign” of these attacks involved defacing different menus by changing their font to Wingdings, thus making them inconsistent. In other cases, Scheuer is said to have interjected profanity in menus. The most serious crimes, however, involved Scheuer’s efforts to manipulate allergen information on menus. Scheuer is also accused of conducting denial-of-service attacks on the work accounts of several of his former colleagues.

Court Watch reveals additional details about what Scheuer apparently did, based on newly revealed court documents:

Scheuer changed wine regions of alcoholic beverages to places that had mass shootings. Court documents say that in one case, he added a swastika to a menu. Scheuer also admitted to leaking the link and login he used to change the menus on the dark web.

Fortunately, none of the restaurant menus that Scheuer manipulated were ever distributed to the locations.

Last year, Disney was hit with an unrelated “wrongful death” lawsuit after a woman died while dining at a restaurant operated at one of Disney’s properties in Florida. The woman had a nut and dairy allergy and she and her husband were wrongly told by their server that the meal she had ordered could be prepared without these ingredients. The case became important after Disney tried to throw out the case based on a forced arbitration clause in the couple’s Disney+ trial subscription. After much discussion, Disney announced that it would withdraw from its big legal strategy and let the case go to trial.