Disney World employee pleads guilty to hacking menu, removing critical allergy information.

An ex-Disney World Resort staff member has confessed to breaching one of the company's computer systems and deleting critical allergy information from restaurant menus.

On June 13, 2024, Michael Scheuer was dismissed from his job as a menu production manager due to allegations of misconduct. The termination was deemed "contentious and not amicable," as stated in a federal court complaint.

According to a Jan. 10 court plea agreement, Scheuer has admitted to unauthorizedly transmitting a program, information, code, and command, resulting in damage to a protected computer and aggravated identity theft.

David Haas, attorney for Scheuer, stated that his client is ready to take accountability for their actions.

"He was fired by Disney after returning from paternity leave due to mental health issues that were worsened, but no one was injured and he deeply regrets his actions."

Planet Chronicle Digital has reached out to Disney.

According to a complaint, federal prosecutors claimed that Scheuer, a "threat actor," was responsible for creating and distributing all restaurant menus for the company, including digital menus. Despite the changes made, none of them appeared on the printed or digital versions of the menus. These actions resulted in $150,000 in damages, the company stated.

The complaint alleges that the threat actor falsely claimed that certain menu items were safe for individuals with peanut allergies by adding information to some allergen notifications, despite the fact that they could be deadly to those with peanut allergies.

Prosecutors stated that the allergen alterations centered on peanut, tree nut, shellfish, and milk allergens.

"Prosecutors stated that the threat actor added notations to menu items indicating they were safe for people with specific allergies, which could have potentially fatal consequences depending on the severity of the customers' allergies. It is believed that these menus were identified and isolated by Company A prior to being shipped out to restaurants and were not distributed further."

Scheuer allegedly prevented more than a dozen employees from accessing their accounts and systems by sending multiple log-in requests and adding profanity and changing the pricing of some items on the menus, according to Fox Orlando.

In addition to altering fonts and resulting in blank pages, Scheuer made specific changes to wine information by replacing geographic regions with "recent mass shooting locations." Furthermore, he embedded a swastika on menus, according to the filing.

He claimed he was falsely accused to conceal the reasons for his termination, according to the complaint.

He could be imprisoned for up to 10 years and fined thousands of dollars.