Uber paid $100k covering up 57million personal data stolen. Hack wasn't sophisticated, nor the 1st time

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21 Nov, 2017
Uber Paid Hackers $100,000 to Delete Stolen Data on 57 Million People, to Keep Massive Cyberattack Quiet
Hackers stole the personal data of 57 million customers and drivers from Uber Technologies Inc., a massive breach that the company concealed for more than a year. This week, the ride-hailing firm ousted its chief security officer and one of his deputies for their roles in keeping the hack under wraps, which included a $100,000 payment to the attackers.

Compromised data from the October 2016 attack included names, email addresses and phone numbers of 50 million Uber riders around the world, the company told Bloomberg on Tuesday. The personal information of about 7 million drivers was accessed as well, including some 600,000 U.S. driver’s license numbers. No Social Security numbers, credit card information, trip location details or other data were taken, Uber said.

21 Nov, 2017
Uber concealed massive hack that exposed data of 57m users and drivers
Firm paid hackers $100,000 to delete data and keep breach quiet
Uber concealed a massive global breach of the personal information of 57 million customers and drivers in October 2016, failing to notify the individuals and regulators, the company acknowledged on Tuesday.

Uber also confirmed it had paid the hackers responsible $100,000 to delete the data and keep the breach quiet, which was first reported by Bloomberg.

21 Nov 2017
Uber caught in massive cover-up. HACKERS plundered the personal data of 57 million Uber customers and drivers - but the app-based cab company covered up the breach for a year, paying the pirates to keep quiet instead, according to a new report. Names, email addresses and phone numbers for 50 million riders and info from seven million drivers were exposed in the October 2016 hack — and the company learned about it a month later, Bloomberg reports. But instead of reporting the breach to regulators or victims, the company acquiesced to the hackers’ demands for $A132,000 to delete the data, according to the report. Uber officials now admit the company should’ve come clean at the time.

The hack wasn’t sophisticated — the digital thieves broke into the accounts of two Uber engineers on the coding site Github, where they found the passwords to some online data storage that contained the personal info, according to the report.

The thieves then contacted Uber to demand the cash.
This isn’t the first time the company has been hacked — or failed to report it. Uber agreed to a $A26,000 settlement with New York Attorney-General Eric Schneiderman last year after it took several months to own up to a data breach.

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Photo courtesy Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP / Getty Images and technicalbot.com