The “Partners” statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, at Cinderella Castle in Magic Kingdom, at Walt Disney World, in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, photographed on Saturday, June 3, 2023.
Joe Burbank | Tribune news service | fake images
A disgruntled former Disney employee is being accused of hacking menu creation software used by the company's restaurants to falsely indicate that certain foods did not contain peanuts.
In a federal criminal complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Michael Scheuer, who had recently been fired, is accused of knowingly causing the transmission of a program to a protected computer and intentionally causing damage without authority.
Scheuer worked at Walt Disney World as a menu production manager. While working at the company, Scheuer was responsible for creating and publishing menus for the company's entire restaurant portfolio.
Scheuer was fired in June for alleged misconduct, the complaint says, adding that the firing was contentious and not amicable.
The criminal complaint was first reported by Court Watch.
The complaint alleges that after his termination, he continued to access the software from a personal device and over a three-month period he allegedly changed menu prices and added profanity.
The complaint said these changes “were more benign,” but Scheuer “also made several menu changes that threatened public health and safety,” such as changing allergen information on menus. The menus were identified before arriving at the restaurants, the lawsuit says.
“That is, the threat actor manipulated allergen information on menus by adding information to some allergen notifications that indicated certain menu items were safe for people with peanut allergies, when in fact they could be deadly for people.” with a peanut allergy,” the complaint says.
On Sept. 23, federal agents searched Scheuer's home and seized four personal computers, according to the criminal complaint. Scheuer denied any wrongdoing and accused Disney of trying to frame him “because they were concerned about him and the conditions under which he was fired,” the complaint states.
He allegedly admitted to using his personal Google Chrome profile to perform his job while employed, according to the complaint. He couldn't say whether he accessed Disney systems after his firing because he believed he may have used them for things like pay stubs and financial information.
Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
David Haas, Scheuer's attorney, said: “The allegations acknowledge that no one was hurt or harmed. I look forward to vigorously presenting my client's side of the story.” He added that Scheuer “has a disability that he believes affected his firing from Disney.”
“Disney did not respond to his questions about his termination and then filed a complaint with the EEOC in response,” Haas said.
