Sign up to create alerts for Instruments,
Economic Events and content by followed authors
Free Sign Up Already have an account? Sign In
Quotes
All Instrument Types
- All Instrument Types
- Indices
- Equities
- ETFs
- Funds
- Commodities
- Currencies
- Crypto
- Bonds
- Certificates
Please try another search
🚨 Our Pro Data Reveals the True Winner of Earnings Season Access Data
Uber ex-security chief accused of hacking coverup must face fraud charges, judge rules
© Reuters. An Uber office is shown in Redondo Beach, California, U.S., March 16, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Blake
By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday said a former Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) Inc security chief must face wire fraud charges over his alleged role in trying to cover up a 2016 hacking that exposed personal information of 57 million passengers and drivers.
The U.S. Department of Justice had in December added the three charges against Joseph Sullivan to an earlier indictment, saying he arranged to pay money to two hackers in exchange for their silence, while trying to conceal the hacking from passengers, drivers and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco rejected Sullivan's claim that prosecutors did not adequately allege he concealed the hacking to ensure that Uber drivers would not flee and would continue paying service fees.
Orrick also rejected Sullivan's claim that the people allegedly deceived were Uber's then-chief executive, Travis Kalanick, and its general counsel, not drivers.
"Those purported misrepresentations, though not made directly to Uber drivers, were part of a larger scheme to defraud them" according to the indictment, Orrick wrote.
Lawyers for Sullivan did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Sullivan also faces two obstruction charges.
The defendant was originally indicted in September 2020, and is believed to be the first corporate information security officer criminally charged with concealing a hacking.
Prosecutors said Sullivan arranged to pay the hackers $100,000 in bitcoin, and have them sign nondisclosure agreements that falsely stated they had not stolen data.
Uber had a bounty program designed to reward security researchers who report flaws, not to cover up data thefts.
Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber's current chief executive, fired Sullivan after learning the extent of the breach.
In September 2018, the San Francisco-based company paid $148 million to settle claims by all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. that it was too slow to reveal the hacking.
Related Articles
Add Chart to Comment
Confirm Block
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
Report this comment
I feel that this comment is:
Comment flagged
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.