Uber’s ex-security chief faces landmark trial over data breach that hit 57m users

Uber's former security officer, Joe Sullivan, is standing trial this week in what is believed to be the first case of an executive facing criminal charges in relation to a data breach.

The US district court in San Francisco will start hearing arguments on whether Sullivan, the former head of security at the ride-share giant, failed to properly disclose a 2016 data breach affecting 57 million Uber riders and drivers around the world.

At a time when reports of ransomware attacks have surged and cybersecurity insurance premiums have risen, the case could set an important precedent regarding the culpability of US security staffers and executives for the way the companies they work for handle cybersecurity incidents.

The breach first came to light in November 2017, when Uber's chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, revealed that hackers had gained access to the driver's license numbers of 600,000 US Uber drivers as well as the names, email addresses and phone numbers of as many as 57 million Uber riders and drivers.

Public disclosures like Khosrowshahi's are required by law in many US states, with most regulations mandating that the notification be made "in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay".

But Khosrowshahi's announcement came with an admission: a whole year had passed since the information had been breached.

"You may be asking why we are just talking about this now, a year later," Khosrowshahi said at the time, adding that the company had investigated the delay and had fired two executives who had led the response to the breach, one of whom was Sullivan.