Uber Covered Up a Data Breach

The former Chief Security Officer of Uber, Joe Sullivan has been charged for covering a massive data breach in 2016. They paid $100000 to hackers for keeping the incident secret.

The recent press release of the U.S. Dept. of Justice states "Sullivan took deliberate steps to conceal, deflect, and mislead the Federal Trade Commission about the breach."

It further says, "A criminal complaint was filed today in federal court charging Joseph Sullivan with obstruction of justice and misprision of a felony in connection with the attempted cover-up of the 2016 hack of Uber Technologies."

The breach was so massive that exposed names, email IDs, phone numbers of 57 million Uber drivers and riders. The driving license number of 600000 (approx.) got hacked or leaked.

The court document says, "Uber paid the hackers $100,000 in BitCoin in December 2016, despite the fact that the hackers refused to provide their true names (at that time)," federal prosecutors said. "In addition, Sullivan sought to have the hackers sign non-disclosure agreements. The agreements contained a false representation that the hackers did not take or store any data.

Moreover, after Uber personnel were able to identify two of the individuals responsible for the breach, Sullivan arranged for the hackers to sign fresh copies of the non-disclosure agreements in their true names. The new agreements retained the false condition that no data had been obtained. Uber's new management ultimately discovered the truth and disclosed the breach publicly, and to the FTC, in November 2017."

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