Former Uber CSO convicted for covering up massive 2016 data theft Joe Sullivan, Uber's former chief security officer, has been found guilty of illegally covering up the theft of Uber drivers and customers' personal information. Sullivan, previously a cybercrime prosecutor for the US Department of Justice, was charged two years ago with obstruction of justice and misprision – concealing a …
In their defense, it's more the same period, again. Uber may not be a great company now, but they were a really bad one in the mid 2010s. The fallout from that period, including this action from 2016, doesn't necessarily reflect on them today. They could theoretically have improved massively and this legal decision would still be required. I have no idea if they have improved or not.
Indeed. To me though, they've been tainted from the beginning and I see no reason to believe that they're a good thing. I'm not so prissy that I'll book my own separate taxi if I'm in a group going somewhere and somebody's insisting on getting an Uber, but I suspect I'll die never having booked an Uber or installed the app.
One thing I really dislike about them is how a certain percentage of talk at parties or nights out has been annexed by Uber. At a certain point suddenly everybody's staring at their phones and waffling on about "surges". It's like being trapped in a kitchen at a party with someone who wants to talk about mortgages.
Or will he face any real punishment?
According to the original charges it's breaches of 18 U.S.C. § 4 and § 1505.
The guidelines are that whoever violates those shall be:
"fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both."
and
"fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both."
Respectively. So 8 years of prison and a hefty fine sounds like the maximum available?
That might make others take these things a bit more seriously, but colour me surprised if there will be any prison time involved.
The prosecutors showed evidence that Sullivan shared details of the hack and payment with then-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, as well as the company’s chief privacy lawyer. They also claimed he didn’t reveal it to Uber’s general counsel and said that later he didn’t expose the true scope of the incident to its new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi.
Your "CEO" statement was a little vague - there being two in question. The one who WAS told is not facing charges. I fail to understand the logic behind that.
"A month later, after managing to identify one of them, an Uber representative met the man in Florida and had him sign a confidentiality agreement."
It's almost too bad they didn't buy the scumbag a pair of cement shoes and take him on an all-expenses-paid deep-sea fishing trip in Tampa Bay.. To show their gratitude, yeah. But no, this is what happens when the lawyers get involved - "confidentiality agreement". So the little piece of shit can continue his mischief against the rest of us. Thanks, Uber.
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