Uber covered up massive hack that exposed data of 57m users and drivers

[OrbitalDawn]

Firm reportedly paid hackers $100,000 to delete data and keep breach quiet. Chief security officer Joe Sullivan fired for concealing October 2016 breach

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.

According to Bloomberg, which first reported on the breach, Uber paid the hackers responsible $100,000 to delete the data and keep the breach quiet.

“None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement acknowledging the breach and cover-up. “While I can’t erase the past, I can commit on behalf of every Uber employee that we will learn from our mistakes.”

Hackers stole personal data including names, email addresses and phone numbers, as well as the names and driver’s license numbers of about 600,000 drivers in the United States. The company said more sensitive information, such as location data, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, social security numbers, and birth dates, had not been compromised.

In his statement, Khosrowshahi said the company had “obtained assurances that the downloaded data had been destroyed” and improved its security, but that the company’s “failure to notify affected individuals or regulators” had prompted him to take several steps, including the departure of two of the employees responsible for the company’s 2016 response.

 

[Gordon_R]

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42075306

Managing Uber appears to be like a game of Whac-A-Mole - no sooner has one crisis been dealt with when another one rears its ugly head.
This latest scandal, however, threatens to tear apart an already fragile truce between Uber's former chief executive Travis Kalanick and Benchmark, the shareholder that trounced him from the top job then tried to kick him off the board.
These two managed to park their hostilities in order that an investment by Japanese conglomerate Softbank - thought to be worth up to $10bn - would go ahead.
But the fact that Uber concealed a massive data breach, which Mr Kalanick knew about a year ago, will do nothing to help matters.
Softbank's investment is significant for Uber because it will result in a significant reform of its board and help the business improve its corporate governance, something that desperately needs to be overhauled.
Uber's new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi appears to be starting as he means to go on. In his statement regarding the data breach, he said the company needed to be open and honest if is to "repair our past mistakes".
Rajeev Misra, a board director at Softbank, described progress on a deal with Uber as "long and arduous".
With Uber's latest problems, it may become a whole lot tougher.