Former Disney employee sentenced to three years for menu hacking

A erstwhile Disney worker will service 3 years successful national prison for logging into the company’s servers to marque changes to its edifice menus’ allergen information, arsenic good arsenic carrying retired “denial-of-service attacks” aimed astatine locking different employees retired of their accounts. The tribunal besides ordered the man, Michael Scheuer, to wage astir $690,000 successful fines.

Scheuer, who pled blameworthy to the crimes successful January, had entree to the company’s paper instauration and editing strategy arsenic portion of his occupation there. After helium was fired successful June past year, Scheuer utilized a login shared by his squad to change the company’s menus aft helium was fired, successful immoderate cases adding oregon replacing allergen information successful point descriptions, portion leaving a abstracted allergen accusation expanse alone, according to tribunal documents. Still, US attorneys argued that his changes could mislead radical into reasoning foods were harmless to devour that weren’t. 

Other alterations included swapping paper fonts for Wingdings and replacing the names of dishes with gag names. (“Shellfish” became “Hellfish,” for example.) As CNN notes, “Disney identified and removed each altered menus earlier they were shipped to restaurants.”

Scheuer’s lawyer insists successful a sentencing memorandum that Scheuer lone made paper changes to get the company’s attention, arsenic helium believed helium had been wrongfully fired implicit a intelligence wellness information — he’d been fto spell aft having a panic onslaught during a disagreement astatine enactment and requesting intelligence wellness accommodations, the lawyer says — but was having occupation uncovering an lawyer to instrumentality his lawsuit oregon getting anyone astatine the institution to respond to his concerns. But national lawyers argued successful their ain sentencing memo that helium made definite alterations discreetly, “specifically to debar detection.”

Along with messing with Disney’s menus, the US accused Scheuer of launching “serial denial-of-service attacks against fourteen idiosyncratic employees, immoderate of whom were progressive successful his termination,” by “simulating thousands of incorrect login attempts to frankincense fastener them out.” He was besides recovered extracurricular the location of 1 of those employees aft the FBI searched his home. Attorneys for the US agreed that Scheuer’s actions were driven, astatine slightest successful part, by “a intelligence wellness episode.”