Uber—Uber's former Chief Security Officer criminally convicted for covering up 2016 data breach
Joseph Sullivan, Uber's former Chief Security Officer, was criminally convicted on October 5, 2022 and sentenced May 4, 2023 to three years probation and 200 hours community service for obstructing FTC investigation and failing to report a felony. Sullivan concealed 2016 data breach affecting 57 million Uber users while company was under FTC investigation for 2014 breach. He arranged for Uber to pay hackers $100,000 in bitcoin in December 2016 to keep breach secret. In September 2018, Uber paid $148 million multistate settlement for covering up the 2016 breach. The 2016 breach exposed over 25 million names and email addresses, 22 million names and mobile phone numbers, and 600,000 names and driver's license numbers of U.S. users.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Data Security | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Whistleblower Protection | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.246 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.59)× agency (compelled ×0.25)
Evidence (1 signal)
Former Uber CSO Joseph Sullivan sentenced for obstructing FTC investigation
Joseph Sullivan, former Chief Security Officer of Uber Technologies, was sentenced to three years probation and 200 hours community service on May 4, 2023 after October 5, 2022 conviction for obstructing Federal Trade Commission investigation and failing to report felony. Sullivan concealed 2016 data breach affecting 57 million Uber users while Uber under FTC investigation for 2014 breach. Arranged $100,000 bitcoin payment to hackers in December 2016.