Ex-Uber safety chief sentenced for data-breach cover-up
SAN FRANCISCO — The previous chief safety officer for Uber was sentenced to probation Thursday for attempting to cowl up a 2016 knowledge breach by which hackers accessed tens of tens of millions of buyer information from the ride-hailing service.
Joseph Sullivan was sentenced to a three-year time period of probation and ordered to pay a advantageous of $50,000, the U.S. legal professional’s workplace introduced.
Sullivan, 54, of Palo Alto was convicted by a federal jury in San Francisco final October of obstructing justice and concealing data {that a} federal felony had been dedicated.
It was believed to be the primary prison prosecution of an organization government over an information breach.
Sullivan was employed as Uber’s chief safety officer in 2015. In November 2016, Sullivan was emailed by hackers, and staff rapidly confirmed that they’d stolen information on about 57 million customers and likewise 600,000 driver’s license numbers, prosecutors stated.
After studying of the breach, Sullivan started a scheme to cover it from the general public and the Federal Commerce Fee, which had been investigating a smaller 2014 hack, authorities stated.
In response to the U.S. legal professional’s workplace, Sullivan advised subordinates that “the story outdoors of the safety group was to be that ‘this investigation doesn’t exist,’ ” and organized to pay the hackers $100,000 in bitcoin in change for them signing non-disclosure agreements promising to not reveal the hack. He additionally by no means talked about the breach to Uber attorneys who have been concerned with the FTC’s inquiry, prosecutors stated.
Uber’s new administration started investigating the breach within the fall of 2017. Regardless of Sullivan mendacity to the brand new chief government officer and others, the reality was uncovered, and the breach was made public, prosecutors stated.
Sullivan was fired together with Craig Clark, an Uber lawyer he had advised in regards to the breach. Clark was given immunity by prosecutors and testified towards Sullivan.
Prosecutors had really helpful a sentence of 15 months in federal jail for Sullivan, who submitted greater than 100 letters of help from associates, household and colleagues.
In an April sentencing memo, prosecutors stated that confirmed that Sullivan is “a rich, highly effective man” with a deep community of household and associates.
“There can’t be two completely different techniques of justice, one for the privileged and one other for the remainder,” the memo argued. “Any such notion would do grievous harm to public respect for the regulation.”
His attorneys argued that Sullivan already “has suffered, and can proceed to endure, vital penalties due to this case.”
No different Uber executives have been charged within the case.
The hackers pleaded responsible in 2019 to laptop fraud conspiracy costs and are awaiting sentencing.