ORLANDO, Fla. — Documents show that a former Disney employee who was accused of hacking the computer system Walt Disney World uses to create its menus has pled guilty in Federal Court.
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Michael Scheuer entered a guilty plea on two counts in connection to his involvement in hacking Disney’s menu creation system changing prices, adding profanity, and even changing allergen information, according to federal court documents.
Count One charged the defendant with “knowingly transmitting a program, information, code, and command and intentionally causing damage without authorization to a protected computer, and the defendant’s course of conduct resulting in an aggregate loss to persons of at least $5,000 in a one-year period.”
Read: Former Disney employee accused of hacking menu creation system, changing allergen information
Count Two charged the defendant with aggravated identity theft.
Count One carries a maximum sentence of ten years’ imprisonment and a maximum fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain caused by the offense, or twice the gross loss caused by the offense, whichever is greater.
Meanwhile, Count Two carries a mandatory sentence of two years imprisonment to be served consecutively to any term of imprisonment for Count One, as well as a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain caused by the offense, or twice the gross loss caused by the offense, whichever is greater.
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WFTV first brought you the story in October 2024 when Federal agents seized Scheuer’s computers in relation to the system hack.
According to court records, the company fired Michael Scheuer for misconduct in June and according to the FBI, he then hacked the computer system, making changes to the company’s restaurant menus.
Disney was not named in the court filing but CourtWatch in partnership with 404 Media, a site that bills itself as an “independent technology investigations site” confirmed with Scheuer’s attorney that the company was Disney.
Scheuer had been a Walt Disney World menu production manager and had the job of publishing all the menus for the company.
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Despite his termination, he still accessed the proprietary computer system software from his devices over three months, changing prices and adding profanity.
Court documents also stated that he “threatened public health and safety” by changing allergen information on the menus.
“Namely, the threat actor manipulated the allergen information on menus by adding information to some allergen notifications that indicated certain menu items were safe for individuals with peanut allergies, when in fact they could be deadly to those with peanut allergies,” the criminal complaint stated.
Scheuer was discovered after he changed menu fonts to Windings instead of readable text, which alerted the company that someone had manipulated the files.
Federal agents seized Scheuer’s computers, but he denied doing anything wrong, saying that Disney was framing him, “because they were worried about him and the conditions under which he was terminated.”
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United States of America v Michael Scheuer by nikkivdemarco on Scribd
The FBI said in the court filings that Scheuer’s “firing was contentious and was not considered to be amicable.”
WFTV will continue to monitor this case and bring you any updates.
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