The “Partners” statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, at Cinderella Castle on the Magic Kingdom, at Walt Disney World, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, photographed Saturday, June 3, 2023.
Joe Burbank | Tribune News Service | Getty Images
A disgruntled former Disney worker is being accused of hacking into menu-creating software utilized by the corporate’s restaurants to falsely indicate that certain food items didn’t contain peanuts.
In a federal criminal criticism filed within the U.S District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Michael Scheuer, who had been recently terminated, is accused of knowingly causing the transmission of a program to a protected computer and intentionally causing damage without authorization.
Scheuer worked at Walt Disney World as a menu production manager. While employed at the corporate, Scheuer was answerable for the creation and publishing of menus for the corporate’s entire restaurant portfolio.
Scheuer was fired in June for alleged misconduct, the criticism says, adding that the termination was contentious and never amicable.
The criminal criticism was first reported by Court Watch.
The criticism alleges that after his firing, he continued to access the software from a private device and over a three-month period allegedly modified menu prices and added profanity.
The criticism said these changes “were more benign” but Scheuer “also made several menu changes that threatened public health and safety” like changing the allergen information on menus. The menus were identified before they made it to the restaurants, the suit says.
“Namely, the threat actor manipulated the allergen information on menus by adding information to some allergen notifications that indicated certain menu items were secure for people with peanut allergies, when in truth they might be deadly to those with peanut allergies,” the criticism says.
On Sept. 23, federal agents searched Scheuer’s home and seized 4 personal computers, in response to the criminal criticism. Scheuer denied any wrongdoing and accused Disney of attempting to frame him “because they were anxious about him and the conditions under which he was terminated,” the criticism states.
He allegedly did admit to using his personal Google Chrome profile to conduct work when he was employed, in response to the criticism. He was unable to say whether he accessed Disney’s systems after he was terminated because he believed he could have used it for things including paystubs and financial information.
Disney didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on Wednesday.
David Haas, an attorney for Scheuer said: “The allegations acknowledge that nobody was injured or harmed. I sit up for vigorously presenting my client’s side of the story.” He added that Scheuer “has a disability that he believes impacted his termination from Disney.”
“Disney failed to reply to his inquiries about being fired and he then filed an EEOC criticism in response,” Haas said.
