Disney World is usually the source of fun and excitement, but there can be a darker side to the most magical place on Earth. Disney World has been the source of some significant criminal activity, including thefts of property. And more recently a significant hacking attempt that could have had disastrous results, and has now put the hacker in prison for three years.
Last fall, criminal charges were filed against Michael Scheuer for hacking into servers and changing information on menus destined for Disney World restaurants. According to CNN, in January, he pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. The three-year sentence was half what prosecutors had been asking for.
Disgruntled Ex-Disney World Employee Modified Menus
According to the charges, Scheuer was fired from his position as a menu creator for Disney World restaurants last summer for misconduct. In retaliation, Scheuer hacked into the menu creation system and made various changes, some were innocuous, such as changing font styles and prices. Other changes, like adding profanity, were more significant.
Scheuer also reportedly used bots to attempt incorrect logins of at least 14 other employees, making it impossible for them to log in to their own accounts.
The most serious change, however, which “threatened public health and safety” according to the complaint, was an alteration to the allergen information in the menus, including marking items that contained peanuts as peanut-free.
The Altered Menu Never Reached Disney World
Obviously, the changed allergen information could have been dangerous if people with serious allergies ate the wrong food. Peanut allergies can be quite severe, even leading to death for some. It's a very serious issue for a lot of people. A Disney Springs restaurant is currently being sued after a patron allegedly died of an allergic reaction. The restaurant is not owned by Disney, but they are named in the lawsuit.
As the father of a kid with (non-life-threatening) allergies, and a lover of theme park food, I know what it's like to navigate menus at Disney Parks. Overall, Disney does a good job of keeping its guests aware of allergen situations so that people can make informed choices. People rely on the information as it is listed on the menus, so that information has to be correct.
Luckily, some of the font changes that Michael Scheuer implemented caused errors in the system, transforming the text to symbols. As such, the modified menus could not be used, and the hacking attempt was discovered.
Scheuer has reportedly been remorseful for his actions, and that, along with the fact that the worst did not happen, may have gone a long way in the sentence being only three years. Still, the potential for disaster was there.
In addition to being sentenced to three years in prison, Michael Scheuer has been ordered to pay nearly $700,000 in restitution.
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