A man who used to work at Disney World got three years in jail for hacking into the park’s menu system to change fonts, add swear words, and remove information about peanut allergies.
This is what Fox 35 says: Michael Scheuer, 40, of Winter Garden, Florida, will spend three years in federal jail, give up his computers, and pay the victims $687,776.50 in restitution.
In January, Scheuer said he was guilty of the charges.
Fox 35 reported that he used to work for Disney as a menu production manager and was in charge of making and sending out all restaurant menus, even the digital ones. On June 13, 2024, he was fired.
A federal complaint said that Scheuer’s firing was “contentious and…not considered to be amicable.” The complaint said that Scheuer “made several menu changes that threatened public health and safety,” as reported by the news source.
According to the complaint, Scheuer changed the prices of some things on the menus and added bad language. It also says that he sent multiple log-in requests, which made it impossible for more than 12 workers to get into their systems and accounts.
His changes were not made to the printed or digital versions of the menu, but the lawsuit said that he had been wronged more than $150,000.
On September 23, the FBI broke into Scheuer’s house and took at least four computers.
Scheuer first told the FBI that he wasn’t involved or doing anything wrong, saying that Disney “was trying to frame him because they were worried about him and the conditions under which he was terminated.”
Fox 35 reports that Scheuer’s lawyer, David Haas, said that his client had a disability that made it hard for him to do his job at Disney.
“He had a medical event that resulted in him being suspended,” said Haas. “Disney then failed to respond to his enquiries about why he was suspended, and then his suspension was inexplicably changed to a termination.”
“Disney refused to provide a response as to why he was fired and made no accommodations for him,” Haas said more. “He then made a complaint to the EEOC.” I’m excited to give my client’s side of the story with all my might.
In the beginning, Scheuer was charged with one count of sending a program, information, code, or order to a protected computer without permission and doing damage worth more than $5,000 on purpose.