Ex-Disney Employee Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for Hacking Menus

florida - Former Walt Disney World employee in Florida receives a three-year prison term for hacking Disney restaurant menus, altering prices, and allergen information.

Former Disney Employee Hacks Menus

A former Disney World employee, Michael Scheuer, from Florida, has been sentenced to three years in prison for hacking into Disney's internal system to modify menus in all Disney restaurants.

Hacking Menus and Manipulating Information

Scheuer, a 40-year-old ex-manager of menu development at Disney, accessed secured internal servers to alter menu details, including prices and allergen information. He made changes that posed risks to public health and safety by falsely labeling menu items.

He tampered with various menu items, such as changing prices, adding inappropriate language, and substituting allergen information, putting customers at risk.

Discovery and Legal Actions

Scheuer's actions were detected when he modified fonts to symbols, rendering the Menu Creator system unusable. Disney had to take the application offline and revert to backups, leading to FBI involvement and Scheuer's identification as the suspect.

Legal documents revealed that Scheuer also blocked access to 14 Disney employees' accounts through denial-of-service attacks, affecting former colleagues involved in his dismissal.

Sentence and Apologies

Despite prosecutors seeking a 70-month prison term, Scheuer received a three-year sentence. He was ordered to pay $620,000 in restitution to Disney and $70,000 to a software company used by Disney for menu creation. Scheuer's lawyer stated his remorse and apologies to former colleagues.