A former Disney employee has pleaded guilty to hacking menus to mislabel food allergens, raising serious safety concerns for diners.
Scheuer, who used to be a menu production manager, got fired for misconduct back in June. He faced charges of computer fraud and identity theft after an FBI investigation. The altered menus could have posed real dangers, but thankfully, they were caught before reaching the restaurants.
He was arrested in October, and while the court documents didn’t name Disney directly, his lawyer confirmed he worked there. Scheuer admitted to hacking the software multiple times from July to September.
He didn’t just stop at changing allergy info. He also made some bizarre edits, like changing wine regions to places that had experienced mass shootings and even added a swastika to a menu. Plus, he redirected QR codes to a site that called for boycotting Israeli companies.
On top of that, he targeted 14 Disney employees, blocking their accounts with a denial-of-service attack. He automated over 100,000 login attempts to lock them out, some of whom were involved in his firing.
Disney flagged him to the FBI after an internal probe. They searched his home and found he had personal info on the employees he targeted. The night before his arrest, he even showed up at one employee’s house, which freaked them out enough to leave their home for safety.
Now, Disney has ditched the hacked menu software and is using a manual process while they work on a new system. As for Scheuer, there’s no sentencing date set yet.
