Former Uber CSO Convicted

Former Uber Technologies CSO, Joe Sullivan has been found guilty in a trial on charges that he covered up a security breach at Uber in 2016 that led to some 57 million Uber passengers and drivers data stolen.

Sullivan was charged in 2020 with obstruction of justice and misprision or concealment of a felony by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California. The hack of Uber took place in 2016 but did not come to light until Uber fired Sullivan in November 2017. He was said to have paid the hackers $100,000 to delete the data and keep the breach quiet.

Sullivan charges, took an interesting twist, since he had previously played a pivotal role in responding to U.S. FTC inquiries about Uber’s cybersecurity practices following an earlier breach in 2014. The complaint against Sullivan alleged that he was made aware of the hack 10 days after testifying to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, but instead of informing the commission, he decided to cover it up.

Sullivan was found guilty by the jury of both charges in the case obstruction and one count of misprision of a felony.

Sullivan’s career included serving as the CSO of Meta Platforms then Facebook, from January 2010 to April 2015 and as CSO of Cloudflare from July 2018. His time at Uber spanned just shy of three years,  according to LinkedIn April 2015 to November 2017.