Hackers stole data of 57m people from Uber Source: By Eric Newcomer BLOOMBERG NEWS NOVEMBER 21, 2017
Nov 21, 2017By Eric Newcomer BLOOMBERG NEWS NOVEMBER 21, 2017
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 company ousted Joe Sullivan, chief security officer, and one of his deputies for their roles in keeping the hack under wraps.
Compromised data from the October 2016 attack included names, e-mail 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 US driver’s license numbers. No Social Security numbers, trip location details or other data were taken, Uber said.
At the time of the incident, Uber was negotiating with US regulators investigating separate claims of privacy violations.
Uber now says it had a legal obligation to report the hack to regulators and to drivers whose license numbers were taken. Instead, the company paid hackers $100,000 to delete the data and keep the breach quiet.
Uber said it believes the information was never used but declined to disclose the identities of the attackers.