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A former Disney employee hacked into the IT system of one of the Walt Disney World parks in retaliation for being fired. He used his profile, which was not blocked after his dismissal, to access the restaurant menus and indicate that dishes with peanuts are safe for people with allergies. This could have led to many deaths, given how quickly the consequences of a peanut allergy develop and how serious they can be. And this is far from the only thing he did as part of an “act of retaliation”.
Nothing to fire
A former Disney employee decided to take revenge on his ex-employer for depriving him of his job and putting the lives of thousands of visitors to the Walt Disney World park in Florida (USA) at risk, writes the New York Post. According to the publication, this is a former “menu production manager” and his name is Michael Scheuer.
Scheuer was fired in June 2024 for some “misconduct”, the details of which the publication does not provide. As revenge, Scheuer decided to carry out a cyberattack and first of all hacked the IT system of restaurants in the park, after which he indicated on the menu that people with allergies can be offered dishes that contain peanuts.
A peanut allergy has a lot of manifestations - from mild itching to anaphylaxis and even cardiac arrest. In other words, Scheuer put the lives of many people - visitors to the amusement park - at risk.
All this is stated in the court documents against Scheuer. He is accused by federal prosecutors of using his work account, which for some reason was not blocked, to log into the IT system of the Disney park menu in Florida.
At the time of publication, Scheuer has not been found guilty. His hearing is scheduled for November 5, 2024.
It is important to emphasize that the court documents do not directly mention Disney. However, there are enough phrases and references in them that point to it.
When it was impossible to stop in time
Schoyer did not immediately make changes to the information about peanut allergies. First, he added swear words to the menu, then changed the font used to Wingdings. This is just a set of different symbols, not letters, and as a result, the menu became unreadable, and the system for creating and updating it was useless. Incidentally, this was the first thing that indicated to the workers that the system was hacked.
Schoyer changed the fonts in the entire menu database, and to fix it, IT specialists had to turn off the entire system and then restore everything from backups. Restaurant workers had to manually create menus for several days, which took them a lot of time.
After the incident, IT workers reset the passwords for users of the system, but Scheuer managed to maintain access to it and then disrupted its operation several more times. In total, it was down for several weeks.
More chaos needed
According to court documents, after messing with fonts and profanity, Scheuer gained access to the servers that stored the menu printing system. He uploaded new menu files that were visually indistinguishable from the originals, but with altered comments about the dishes and their ingredients. It was at this stage that he added notes that dishes with peanuts were safe for people with certain allergies.
Continued story
Then Scheuer decided to go further and carried out another cyberattack, this time targeting Disney employees. According to court documents, he used a script to automatically log into the company's IT system, which he used 7,934 times. As a result, at least 14 Disney employees had their profiles blocked.
Scheuer then moved on to stalking employees. He had access to the personal information of several company employees, including their addresses and phone numbers. He decided to visit one of them late at night.
No one was hurt
The court filing specifically emphasizes that the restaurants did not use the menu upgrades Scheuer made; his antics were discovered in advance. Scheuer's attorney, David Haas, also told the New York Post that no one was hurt by his client's actions.
Haas insists that Scheuer had some kind of "mental disability that caused a panic attack while he was at work". "Disney suspended him and then changed the decision to terminate him without cause", Haas said, adding that Disney did not respond to his client's request for grounds for termination.
"Disney did not respond to his requests for termination, and then he filed a complaint with the EEOC", Haas said. A complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is often a precursor to a discrimination lawsuit, the New York Post reports.
Nothing to fire
A former Disney employee decided to take revenge on his ex-employer for depriving him of his job and putting the lives of thousands of visitors to the Walt Disney World park in Florida (USA) at risk, writes the New York Post. According to the publication, this is a former “menu production manager” and his name is Michael Scheuer.
Scheuer was fired in June 2024 for some “misconduct”, the details of which the publication does not provide. As revenge, Scheuer decided to carry out a cyberattack and first of all hacked the IT system of restaurants in the park, after which he indicated on the menu that people with allergies can be offered dishes that contain peanuts.
A peanut allergy has a lot of manifestations - from mild itching to anaphylaxis and even cardiac arrest. In other words, Scheuer put the lives of many people - visitors to the amusement park - at risk.
All this is stated in the court documents against Scheuer. He is accused by federal prosecutors of using his work account, which for some reason was not blocked, to log into the IT system of the Disney park menu in Florida.
At the time of publication, Scheuer has not been found guilty. His hearing is scheduled for November 5, 2024.
It is important to emphasize that the court documents do not directly mention Disney. However, there are enough phrases and references in them that point to it.
When it was impossible to stop in time
Schoyer did not immediately make changes to the information about peanut allergies. First, he added swear words to the menu, then changed the font used to Wingdings. This is just a set of different symbols, not letters, and as a result, the menu became unreadable, and the system for creating and updating it was useless. Incidentally, this was the first thing that indicated to the workers that the system was hacked.
Schoyer changed the fonts in the entire menu database, and to fix it, IT specialists had to turn off the entire system and then restore everything from backups. Restaurant workers had to manually create menus for several days, which took them a lot of time.
After the incident, IT workers reset the passwords for users of the system, but Scheuer managed to maintain access to it and then disrupted its operation several more times. In total, it was down for several weeks.
More chaos needed
According to court documents, after messing with fonts and profanity, Scheuer gained access to the servers that stored the menu printing system. He uploaded new menu files that were visually indistinguishable from the originals, but with altered comments about the dishes and their ingredients. It was at this stage that he added notes that dishes with peanuts were safe for people with certain allergies.
Continued story
Then Scheuer decided to go further and carried out another cyberattack, this time targeting Disney employees. According to court documents, he used a script to automatically log into the company's IT system, which he used 7,934 times. As a result, at least 14 Disney employees had their profiles blocked.
Scheuer then moved on to stalking employees. He had access to the personal information of several company employees, including their addresses and phone numbers. He decided to visit one of them late at night.
No one was hurt
The court filing specifically emphasizes that the restaurants did not use the menu upgrades Scheuer made; his antics were discovered in advance. Scheuer's attorney, David Haas, also told the New York Post that no one was hurt by his client's actions.
Haas insists that Scheuer had some kind of "mental disability that caused a panic attack while he was at work". "Disney suspended him and then changed the decision to terminate him without cause", Haas said, adding that Disney did not respond to his client's request for grounds for termination.
"Disney did not respond to his requests for termination, and then he filed a complaint with the EEOC", Haas said. A complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is often a precursor to a discrimination lawsuit, the New York Post reports.
