Former Walt Disney World Cast Member Found Guilty of Hacking Restaurant Menus Receives Prison Sentence and Hefty Fine

The former menu production manager was terminated last summer for misconduct.

Michael Scheuer, an ex-Disney cast member who was found guilty of hacky restaurant menus, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison and fined upwards $700k.

What’s Happening:

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that former Walt Disney World cast member Michael Scheuer will spend 3-years in federal prison and must pay $687,776 after he hacked into Disney’s software and falsely labeled certain food items as allergy free.
The forty-year-old Winter Garden, Florida resident was apprehended back in October of 2024 after an FBI investigation linked back to the former-cast member.
Scheuer had previously served as a menu production manager for the media giant prior to being terminated in July of 2024 for misconduct.
In January, Scheuer pleaded guilty to hacking into the company’s software numerous times between July and September of 2024. Charges included one count of computer fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
He also admitted to altering the menus to mark certain items as safe from allergens like peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish and milk.
Additionally, Scheuer changed the wine regions to areas that recently experienced mass shootings, added a swastika to at least one menu, and also added QR codes that would send patrons to websites that encouraged boycotting Israeli companies and those with significant ties to the country.
On top of the incidents with menu alterations, Scheuer blocked 14 Disney employees from their accounts through denial-of-service attacks. Using automated login attempts, Scheuer had these employees' accounts locked by totaling around 100,000 failed login attempts.
After an internal investigation, Disney reported the former employee to the FBI as a potential suspect prompting the agency to search Scheuer’s residence in September. They collected several electronic devices, according to the records.
In the FBI’s investigation, they found that Scheuer had collected personal information about four former coworkers targeted in the cyberattack. This included phone numbers, addresses, emails, and names of family members.
The night before his arrest, Scheuer visited one of the employee’s homes at approximately 11PM. He walked to the door, gave the Ring doorbell a thumbs up and left.
Disney no longer uses the hacked software for menu creations.

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