‘UBER PAID HACKERS, CONCEALED DATA BREACH’
US$100,000 to delete stolen data involving personal information of 57m accounts held by ride-service provider, says new CEO
UBER Technologies Inc paid hackers US$100,000 (RM414,000) to keep secret a massive breach last year that exposed the personal information of about 57 million accounts of the ride-service provider, said the company on Tuesday.
Discovery of the United States company’s cover-up of the incident resulted in the firing of two employees responsible for its response to the hack, said Dara Khosrowshahi, who replaced cofounder Travis Kalanick as chief executive officer in August.
“None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” said Khosrowshahi.
The breach occurred in October last year but Khosrowshahi said he had recently learned of it.
The hack is another controversy for Uber on top of sexual harassment allegations, a suit alleging trade secrets theft and multiple federal criminal probes that culminated in Kalanick’s ouster in June.
The stolen information included names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers of Uber users around the world, and the names and licence numbers of 600,000 US drivers, said Khosrowshahi.
Uber passengers need not worry as there is no evidence of fraud, while drivers whose licence numbers had been stolen would be offered free identity theft protection and credit monitoring, said Uber.
Regulators in Australia and the Philippines said yesterday they would look into the matter.
Uber is seeking to mend fences in Asia after having run-ins with authorities, and is negotiating with a consortium led by Japan’s SoftBank Group for fresh investment. Reuters