A U.S. federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a former head of digital security at Uber should face wire fraud charges for his alleged role in trying to cover up a 2016 hack that the company suffered that exposed information. of 57 million passengers and drivers.
The defendant was originally indicted in September 2020 and is believed to be the first information security executive criminally charged with concealing a hacking attack.
The U.S. Department of Justice in December added three charges against Joseph Sullivan to a previously filed lawsuit, saying he paid two hackers in exchange for his silence while trying to hide the attack from passengers, drivers and the country’s Federal Trade Commission ( FTC).
District Judge William Orrick rejected Sullivan’s defense which argued problems with the prosecution. Orrick also rejected Sullivan’s claim that the people allegedly misled were Uber’s then-CEO Travis Kalanick and his general counsel, not the drivers registered on the platform.
Sullivan’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Sullivan also faces two counts of obstruction.
Prosecutors said Sullivan paid the hackers $100,000 in bitcoins and made them sign confidentiality agreements that falsely claimed they had not stolen the data.
Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s current chief executive, fired Sullivan after learning of the scale of the data breach.
Source: CNN Brasil
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