A former Disney employee is accused of hacking the menu database
After allegedly breaking into Disney's computers and changing the menus at its restaurants, a former employee was taken into custody and charged. Former Disney menu production manager Michael Scheuer was accused of three separate violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
After allegedly breaking into Disney's computers and changing the menus at its restaurants, a former employee was taken into custody and charged. Former Disney menu production manager Michael Scheuer was accused of three separate violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
Court filings describe his departure as "contentious" and "not considered to be amicable," following his termination from this post in June for an undisclosed transgression. Scheuer allegedly changed the system's fonts to Wingdings symbols by logging into the Disney menu design system that was contracted by a third-party company using his work credentials, which remained active after his firing.
The menu designer would reach for these modified font files when it was launched because it thought they were correct. "As a result of this change, all of the menus within the database were unusable because the font changes propagated throughout the database," stated the complaint. Additionally, Scheuer is accused of removing allergen information from the menus, implying that certain items were safe when in fact they weren't, which might have fatal results. Before the menus could be distributed, Disney recognized and segregated them.
The system went offline for a few weeks due to the menu modifications, and it took a backup to get it back online. Additionally, Scheuer has been charged with being the primary culprit behind several distributed denial-of-service attacks against Disney employees, with their data discovered in a folder on one of Scheuer's virtual computers that was dubbed "dox." The FBI claims that Scheuer was the culprit based on the evidence gathered during the investigation. He is still in custody pending a bond hearing after being charged with two CFAA crimes. He might spend up to 15 years behind bars if convicted.
