A bitter ex-Disney World employee has been accused of hacking menu software and making life-threatening alterations.
Michael Scheuer changed allergen information on the resort’s menus to falsely indicate that items were peanut free, according to the criminal complaint.
The documents reads: ‘Some of the changes, such as changes to prices and adding profanity to the menus, were more benign.
‘However, the threat actor also made several menu changes that threatened public health and safety.’
While employed by Disney, Scheuer was the Menu Production Manager. He was responsible for publishing menus for all of the company’s restaurants.
An ex-Disney employee, identified as Michael Scheuer, was caught on a Ring camera approaching the door of one of the employees he allegedly tried to hack
A Disney resort restaurant (pictured). Scheuer has been accused of hacking menu software and making life-threatening alterations
He was fired in June for misconduct, according to the complaint, which was filed with the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
It said firing Scheuer was ‘contentious and ‘was not considered to be amicable.’
It is alleged that during a three month period after he was terminated, he accessed the third-party menu system, Menu Creator, from a personal device and made the unauthorized changes.
His log-in credentials still worked at the time. But once he lost access to them, he directly hacked the servers of the company who created the software.
According to the complaint, employees first noticed external interference with their menus when they saw all the fonts were changed to wingdings – with uses symbols instead of letters and numbers.
‘As a result of this change, all of the menus within the database were unusable because the font changes propagated throughout the database,’ it reads.
Disney had to take the Menu Creator ‘offline’ for one or two weeks while they tried to fix the changes Scheuer made.
At one point, he even created an alias – Emily P. Beaman – and created a new account to try to break into the system, the document alleges.
The ‘Partners’ statue outside of Disney World (pictured). Scheuer allegedly made several attempts to hack the company’s menu system after he was fired
On August 29, about 14 Disney employees were ‘locked out’ of their accounts because Scheuer was trying to log in with their credentials.
Based on Ring doorbell footage and the FBI tracking Scheuer’s location, he showed up to the house of someone he allegedly hacked on the night of October 22.
‘More specifically, the threat actor developed a script to perform automated logon attempts, and as of the date of this affidavit, the threat actor had attempted over 100,000 logons to the victim accounts,’ the complaint reads.
But the determined hacker was able to intercept the software company’s server, which controls the printing cues for the menus.
Scheuer’s changes were printed onto the menus on September 16, the complaint alleges.
Disney noticed the interference before the menus were distributed to the restaurants.
On September 23, FBI agents searched Scheuer’s home and seized four computers, the complaint states.
A waitress served a family their breakfast at a Disney restaurant (pictured). While employed by Disney, Scheuer was the Menu Production Manager
The accused ex-staffer denied any wrong-doing and alleged that Disney was trying to ‘frame’ him because they are concerned about the ‘conditions under which he was terminated.’
He did admit to working through his personal Google Chrome profile while employed by Disney, according to the document. He could not say if he accessed the systems after he was fired.
Scheuer said he may have used Disney’s systems to look for his ‘paystubs and other financial information.’
Scheuer’s lawyer, David Haas, said in a statement to NBC Miami: ‘The allegations acknowledge that no one was injured or harmed.
‘I look forward to vigorously presenting my client’s side of the story.’
Haas also touched upon the circumstances of Scheuer getting fired, stating he ‘has a disability that he believes impacted his termination from Disney.’
On October 5, 2023, an NYU doctor died after the staff at a Disney restaurant in Orlando allegedly ignored her nut allergy and served her contaminated food.
Kanokporn Tangsuan, 42, and her family had dined at Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant, where she had a deadly allergic reaction.
Jeffrey Piccolo, the doctor’s husband, filed a wrongful death lawsuit that claimed Walt Disney Parks and Resorts was negligent and failed to properly train their staff about food allergies.
Scheuer gave a thumbs up to a Ring camera as he walked away. He has denied any wrongdoing and claimed to have been ‘framed’ by Disney
Disney attempted to dismiss the lawsuit through a loophole in their terms and agreements.
The company argued the case should be sent to arbitration rather than a jury trial because the terms and agreements of creating a Disney account includes a ‘binding arbitration clause,’ court records show.
‘Walt Disney Parks and Resorts nonetheless improperly attempts to negate this distinction by making the preposterous argument,’ Piccolo’s lawyers said.
