EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Uber has received pages of press recently, and if you haven’t had time to parse through every detail, you’re not alone. Cyber Talk provides you with sound-bites that’ll make it seem like you’ve read every word.

Uber’s security skirmish:

In a felony complaint filed in a federal court, the U.S. Department of Justice is now accusing Uber of covering up a 2016 cyber breach. Between 2015 and 2017, Uber’s top security officer allegedly took “deliberate steps to conceal, deflect and mislead” the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in regards to the theft of 600,000 Uber divers’ license information, and other damages.

In exchange for staying silent about the cyber breach, the hackers demanded a large lump-sum payment. Uber forked over $100,000 in BitCoin, and managed to wrangle the hackers into signing an NDA, which falsely reported that no data had been stolen from the company.

As authorities unraveled the case late last year, the two hackers pleaded guilty to computer fraud conspiracy charges. For more on Uber’s security breach story, visit MSSP Alert.

Uber’s business model:

A recent California court ruling required Uber (and its main US-based competitor, Lyft) to convert contract workers into full-time employees. In response, the companies vowed to cease business in the State of California rather than comply with the mandate.

A state appeals court then ruled to delay the new mandate on the condition that both companies outline plans for converting drivers to employees, should the court rule against them in the future. A review of the case is slated to take place in early September.

The delay helps “avoid disruption to drivers and riders” in addition to “telling the companies that they can’t keep burying their heads in the sand,” says Charlotte Garden, a professor at Seattle University’s School of Law.

For more on this story, visit Bloomberg Law.