ORLANDO, Fla. (WFLA) – A former Walt Disney World employee will plead guilty to hacking menu-creation software to include profanity and alter allergy information.
Federal court documents filed Friday show Michael Scheuer intends to plead guilty to charges of “knowingly transmitting a program, information, code, and command and intentionally causing damage without authorization to a protected computer and aggravated identity theft.”
Disney was made aware of Scheuer’s actions in July, after Scheuer had been terminated for misconduct, an earlier criminal complaint indicated.
Scheuer was previously employed at the company as a “Menu Product Manager,” creating and publishing menus using a third-party computer system that was designed exclusively for Disney, the complaint said. In addition to menu creation, the system “has several other functionalities, such as pricing, menu management, and inventory management,” according to the complaint.
Scheuer was later accused of hacking back into the software, where he made some pages inaccessible, changed fonts, and added profanity and images, including a swastika.
He was further accused of “manipulat[ing] the allergen information on menus by adding information to some allergen notifications that indicated certain menu items were safe for individuals with peanut allergies, when in fact they could be deadly to those with peanut allergies,” the complaint alleged.
In addition to manipulating the menus, Scheuer allegedly launched denial-of-service attacks aimed at disabling 14 employee accounts and hid his identity and location using a VPN.
After an FBI search of his home in August, Scheuer claimed Disney World was trying to frame him because they were “worried about him and the conditions under which he was fired,” the initial complaint said.
Disney claimed Scheuer’s actions resulted in over $150,000 in damage, but the exact amount has yet to be determined by the court. His lawyer, David Hass, told CNBC he is “prepared to accept responsibility for his conduct” and that he had mental health issues that were exacerbated by Disney firing him after he returned from paternity leave.
Hass said that upon Scheuer’s sentencing, he will be subject to a fine and will be ordered to pay restitution. It is not yet known how much jail time he faces.
