Uber nabs Facebook CSO to oversee cybersecurity

Uber has hired Facebook chief security office Joe Sullivan to tackle data breaches at the cab-sharing company.

The move comes a few months after Uber admitted that the company’s database was breached in May 2014, when an unauthorised third party gained access to the names and driver’s licence numbers of 50,000 Uber employees.

Sullivan has been Facebook’s CSO for the last five years, and will join Uber in the same role at the end of April. He also spent seven years at eBay and PayPal, and eight years as a prosecutor for the Department of Justice, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick noted in a blog post.

“We’ve […] been looking for the right individual to oversee our global cybersecurity and safety efforts — someone who understands what makes Uber unique,” Kalanick added.

“I had the good fortune to work at two amazing companies — eBay and Facebook — when they were growing rapidly,” Sullivan added in the same Uber post. “I look forward to bringing the best practices that I’ve learned along the way to Uber and doing defining work in bridging the divide between the digital and physical worlds.”

“It’s not an easy decision to leave a great company like Facebook, but this is a challenge where I get to take what makes Silicon Valley special and apply it to a product that directly impacts people’s lives everyday as they move around the world’s cities,” he said.

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