Posted on November 23, 2017 at 5:46 PM

Uber Caught In Covering Up Major Data Breach

The latest Uber data breach scandal is thought to have affected over 57 million users and up to 600,000 Uber drivers.

The popular transport-providing service, Uber, recently confirmed that they concealed a huge ransomware attack on their systems which affected millions of users and drivers worldwide.

According to the company, the ransomware attack was launched in October 2016. Following the data breach, Uber paid the responsible attackers a ransom of $100,000 to withdraw the exposed data. Since the event transpired, however, Uber successfully covered up the events of the attack.

However, since the attack has been made public, Uber has fired its chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, and another unknown employee for the role they played in covering up the attack.

According to reports, the leaked data included users’ and drivers’ names, phone numbers, and email addresses. The leak affected users and drivers all over the world.

In addition, seven million drivers’ personal data was leaked, including their license plate numbers. The leak is thought to have affected 600,000 US drivers.

Reports confirmed that Uber’s former chief executive, Travis Kalanick, was aware of the data leak.

According to Uber, the information was never made publicly available by the hackers. The company has declined to provide more information regarding the attackers’ identities.

Uber’s current chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, stated that the incident did not cause any suspicion of fraud or misuse. However, Khosrowshahi confirmed that the company was still monitoring affected users and drivers, and have offered the affected accounts additional fraud support.

In a released statement, Uber confirmed that when the incident occurred, the company added security protection to prevent similar attacks in the future.

The company also stated that soon after identifying the responsible attackers, and paying the ransom, they were assured that all information has been deleted.

According to Khosrowshahi, who stepped in as Chief Executive in September this year, he ordered a thorough investigation as to last year’s data breach, especially regarding how the attack was handled.

Uber has come under fire recently for a host of problems, most notably, a surprisingly high amount of sexual harassment allegations. The allegations were made Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer, who wrote about her experiences on her blog.

In addition, Uber recently lost its operating license and privileges in London. The city regulatory agency, Transport for London (TfL), revoked the company’s license after the agency deemed Uber unfit to operate within its jurisdiction.

The company confirmed that they intend to uphold their legal obligation to report the data breach to the appropriate authorities.