Ex-Uber security chief found guilty of concealing data breach in 2016

October 06, 2022 By Jozeph P

(Image Credit Google)

Joe Sullivan, a former Uber top security officer, was convicted of covering up a 2016 cyberattack in which a hacker downloaded the personal data of more than 57 million passengers. More than 50 million Uber users, 7 million drivers, and another 600,000 drivers all had their names, phone numbers, and email addresses taken, in addition to 7 million driver's license numbers and 600,000 more users' driver's license numbers. According to the New York Times and Washington Post, the jury found Sullivan guilty on two counts: misprision, which is hiding a felony from the authorities and obstructing justice by failing to notify the FTC of the breach. uber security breach

He had been charged with three counts of wire fraud, but the case was dropped in August by the prosecution. As the Post notes, Sullivan had previously worked as a security executive at Facebook and Cloudflare. In this case, he was also up against the San Francisco US attorney's office, where he had previously worked as a cybercrime prosecutor. The attack was disclosed by the prosecution in their initial complaint (PDF), which noted that it nearly perfectly replicated a 2014 Uber breach for which the FTC was already looking into the firm at the time of the event. In September, while the trial was starting, Uber's computers were once more compromised in a hack allegedly carried out by a former member of the Lapsus$ ransomware organization, prompting it to temporarily shut down some internal services. uber security breach

Two outsiders who were scouring Github in 2016 discovered credentials that gave them access to Uber's Amazon Web Services (AWS) storage, which they then used to obtain the company's database backups. The hackers then got in touch with Uber and arranged a ransom payment in the amount of $100,000 worth of Bitcoin, considered a bug bounty by the firm, and a promise to destroy the stolen data. In 2019, they ultimately admitted to hacking the business. Uber eventually fired Sullivan under Khosrowshahi, acknowledged the breach in public, paid $148 million to settle civil claims from all 50 states relating to the breach, and reached a settlement with the prosecutors in July, promising "full cooperation" in the criminal case against Sullivan.

By Jozeph P

Journalism explorer, tech Enthusiast. Love to read and write.

Ex-Uber security chief found guilty of concealing data breach in 2016

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