A San Francisco jury has discovered Uber Applied sciences Inc’s former chief safety officer Joe Sullivan responsible of legal obstruction for failing to report a 2016 cybersecurity incident to the authorities, a spokesperson from the Division of Justice confirmed on Wednesday.
Sullivan, who was fired from Uber in 2017, was discovered responsible on two counts, specifically obstruction of justice and deliberate concealment of felony.
“Sullivan affirmatively labored to cover the information breach from the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) and took steps to forestall the hackers from being caught,” stated Stephanie Hinds, U.S. Legal professional for the Northern District of California.
The case pertains to a breach at Uber’s methods that affected information of 57 million passengers and drivers. The corporate didn’t disclose the incident for a yr.
In July, Uber accepted accountability for masking up the breach and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution of Sullivan over his alleged position in concealing the hacking, as a part of a settlement with U.S. prosecutors to keep away from legal fees.
Sullivan’s lawyer David Angeli and the FTC didn’t instantly reply to Reuters’ requests for remark.
Sullivan was initially indicted in September 2020. Prosecutors had stated on the time he organized to pay the hackers $100,000 in bitcoin and had them signal nondisclosure agreements that falsely acknowledged they’d not stolen information.
Sullivan was additionally accused of withholding data from Uber officers who may have disclosed the breach to the FTC, which had been evaluating the San Francisco-based firm’s information safety following a 2014 breach.
In September 2018, Uber paid $148 million to settle claims by all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., that it was too gradual to reveal the hacking.
