A San Francisco jury has discovered Uber Technologies Inc’s former Chief Security Officer, Mr. Joseph Sullivan, guilty of criminal obstruction for failing to 2016’s report a cybersecurity happening to the authorities, a spokesperson from the Department of Justice confirmed. Jury Found Former Uber Security Chief Guilty of Concealing Data Breach.
Mr. Sullivan, who was fired from Uber in 2017, was found guilty on two counts: obstruction of justice and deliberate concealment of a felony. “Sullivan affirmatively worked to hide the data breach from the Federal Trade Commission and took steps to eliminate the hackers from being caught,” said Mr. Stephanie Hinds, US Attorney for the Northern District of California.
The case pertains to a breach in Uber’s systems that affected the data of 57 million passengers and drivers. The company did not disclose the incident for a year. In July, Uber accepted responsibility for covering up the breach and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution of Sullivan over his alleged role in concealing the hacking as part of a settlement with US prosecutors to avoid criminal charges.
Sullivan’s lawyer David Angeli, and the FTC did not immediately respond requests for comment. Mr. Sullivan was originally indicted in September 2020. Prosecutors had said that he had arranged to pay the hackers $100,000 in bitcoin and had them sign nondisclosure agreements that falsely stated they had not stolen data. Mr. Sullivan was also accused of withholding information from Uber officials who could have disclosed the breach to the FTC, which had been evaluating the San Francisco-based company’s data security following a 2014 breach.
In September 2018, Uber paid $148 million to settle claims by all 50 US states and Washington, DC, that it was too slow to disclose the hacking.
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