Former Uber security chief guilty of data breach coverup

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The former chief security officer for Uber has been convicted of trying to cover up a 2016 data breach in which hackers accessed millions of customer records from the ride-hailing service. Authorities say Joseph Sullivan was convicted Wednesday in San Francisco of federal charges for concealing the breach, in which hackers stole data on 57 million users and 600,000 driver’s license numbers. Prosecutors say Sullivan concealed the breach from the Federal Trade Commission and secretly paid the hackers $100,000 in return for promising not to release the data. Uber’s new management uncovered the truth in 2017 and made the breach public. The hackers pleaded guilty in 2019 to computer fraud conspiracy charges and are awaiting sentencing.