Truth, transparency and trust are the three T’s that all CISOs and CSOs should embrace as they march through their daily grind of keeping their enterprise and the data safe and secure. Failure to adhere to the three T’s can have serious consequences.
Case in point: A federal judge recently ordered Uber Technologies to work with its former CSO, Joseph Sullivan (who held the position from April 2015 to November 2017), and review a plethora of Uber documents that Sullivan has requested in unredacted form for use in his defense in the upcoming criminal trial.
The case against Uber’s former CSO
By way of background, Uber’s former CSO faces a five-felony count superseding indictment associated with his handling of the company’s 2016 data breach. The court document, filed in December 2021, alleges Sullivan “engaged in a scheme designed to ensure that the data breach did not become public knowledge, was concealed, and was not disclosed to the FTC and to impacted users and drivers.” Furthermore, the two individuals, who are believed to have affected the hack and subsequently requested payment for non-disclosure ultimately received $100,000 from Uber’s bug bounty program. These individuals were identified in media as, Vasile Mereacre, a Canadian citizen living in Toronto, and Brandon Glover, a Florida resident, both of whom were later indicted for their breach of Lynda (a company acquired by Linkedin).