Joseph Sullivan, Uber’s security chief until 2017 was convicted by a federal jury for covering up the 2016 data breach that leaked the data of millions of customers and thousands of drivers. 

His conviction marks the first time that a corporate executive has been convicted for a data breach and faced criminal consequences. Sullivan was convicted following a three-week trial and now faces up to eight years in prison for his role in the cover up. 

The 2016 hack led to the data of over 57 million customers and 600,000 drivers’ license numbers. 

Also Read | Uber investigating network breach after hacker gains access to systems

Who is Joseph Sullivan?

Joseph Edmund Sullivan was born in 1968 in Rutland, Vermont. His family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where he graduated from Matignon High School in 1986.

He went on to earn a Bachelor’s of Arts at Providence College in 1990. Sullivan later went on to earn his Juris Doctor from the University of Miami School of Law in 1993. 

For eight years after law school, he worked for the Department of Justice, starting off as an intern at the Miami office in 1992, before finally working under Robert Mueller, who would go on to become the director of the FBI from 2001 to 2013. Sullivan was, humorously enough, a founding member of the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property unit in the Northern district of California. 

Also Read | Uber admits guilt over 2016 data breach, avoids criminal charges

After working for the government for a while, he decided to shift to the private sector, with a stint at eBay as their Senior Director of Trust and Safety. He joined the company in 2002 before finally quitting in 2008, the year he joined Facebook. 

Also Read | Former Uber IT security chief to face new charges. Here’s why

Sullivan started as the social media company’s attorney in 2008, two years later he went on to work as the company’s Chief Security Officer from 2010 to 2015. During his time at Facebook, he worked to combat hacking attempts, especially during the Tunisian Revolution during Arab Spring. 

Sullivan joined Uber in 2015, and following the data breach in 2016 and its subsequent coverup, was fired in 2017 when the company brought in new management.