A former Uber security executive, Joseph Sullivan, has been charged with offering “hush money” to cover up a destructive 2016 data breach. Sullivan allegedly paid the hackers $100k to cover up the breach without notifying the public in a timely manner, which exposed the personal information of 57 million passengers and drivers. The attackers access Uber’s Amazon Web Services accounts, stealing the data, and threatening to release it.
Over the weekend, the US State Attorney for the Northern District of California charged Joseph Sullivan with obstruction of justice and misprision of a felony, both of which occurred when Sullivan was the chief security officer at Uber. The charges include paying off hackers responsible for the data breach through disguising the transaction in Uber’s bug bounty program. US Attorney David Anderson, the case’s prosecutor, stated that the state will not tolerate hush-money payments in Silicon Valley or elsewhere.
Read More: Former Uber CSO Charged With Paying ‘Hush Money’ in 2016 Breach Cover-Up
