Former Disney employee pleads guilty to conducting series of cyber intrusions

39 year old Michael Scheuer, who used to work at Walt Disney World, has pleaded guilty to hacking into his former employer’s menu system after he was fired last year and changing allergy information.
The man used to work as a menu production manager for Walt Disney World Orlando, but was fired in June 2024 for ‘misconduct’. But he wasn’t going to let this slide.
Scheuer conducted a series of computer intrusions directed at his former employer following his termination. He didn’t steal or exfiltrate sensitive corporate data, but managed to manipulate allergen information in restaurant menus to indicate that food items were safe to eat for customers with certain allergies, when in reality they were not.
These changes never made it to printed or digital versions of the menus and no one was ever at risk of injury. But according to the complaint, it caused Walt Disney World Orlando over $150,000 in damages.
That’s not all. The former employee also changed the fonts and pricing of some items, and added a swastika to the menus. In addition, he altered menu information related to wine regions, naming locations that were in the news because of recent mass shootings.
Lastly, Scheuer also launched numerous Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks. He would send multiple log-in requests, which prevented more than a dozen employees from being able to access their accounts and systems.
According to Scheuer’s attorney David Haas, his client suffered ‘a disability that impacted his employment at Disney’.
The suspect has now pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly transmitting a program, code, or command to a protected computer and intentionally causing damage without authorization and one count of aggravated identity theft, the United States Department of Justice reports. The man also agreed to forfeit the computer he used to commit the offenses.
If found guilty, the man could face up to ten years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines, as well as a minimum sentence of two years in federal prison for aggravated identity theft.
A sentencing date has not yet been set.
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