Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Last week U.S. District Judge Julie S. Sneed sentenced former Disney World manager Michael Scheuer to three years in federal prison for knowingly transmitting a program, code, or command to a protected computer and intentionally causing damage and for committing aggravated identity theft.
Credit: Clement Bardot / FBI
Michael Scheuer, a Florida resident was also ordered to pay nearly US$690,000 in restitution, with most of that going to Disney.
He pled guilty back in January to one count of computer fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
David Haas, Scheuer’s lawyer, in a statement to CNN.said “Scheuer remains remorseful and apologetic to his former co-workers. We are grateful that the judge heard all of our arguments and mitigation when fashioning a sentence that was half of what the government was seeking”.
Michael worked as a menu production manager for Disney and was fired in June 2024 for misconduct. He had access to secure internal servers for creating and publishing menus for all of Disney’s restaurants as part of his job and (later) hacked into Disney’s menu creation servers multiple times to manipulate and disrupt the menus, such as changing prices and adding profane language. He also made changes to the menus that “threatened public health and safety,” the complaint said, including altering allergen information to indicate certain menu items with peanuts were peanut-free, posing a fatal risk to individuals with peanut allergies.
Disney says that it identified and removed all altered menus before they were displayed in restaurants.
FBI Tampa Division Special Agent in Charge Matthew Fodor said “Formidable relationships with the private sector are a pillar of the FBI’s Cyber Strategy. Through the strength in our partnerships, our Cyber Task Force swiftly identified Mr. Scheuer and disrupted his ability to continue threatening the public. We are committed to safeguarding a robust Cyber Strategy to unmask malicious cyberactors to ensure justice is served.”
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Tampa Division Orlando Resident Agency Criminal Intrusion Cyber Squad. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert D. Sowell.
Scheuer also allegedly disabled employee accounts during his hacking campaigns, locking at least 14 Disney employees out of their accounts by continually attempting to log on to their accounts with incorrect passwords.
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