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Uber Paid Hackers $100,000 To Delete Stolen Data Of 57 Million Users And Then Hid The News
Ride-hailing service Uber paid hackers to delete stolen data of 57 million users.
Ride-hailing app Uber paid hackers to delete stolen personal data related to 57 million users who use the service including both customers and drivers.
According to Bloomberg, Uber's security was compromised in a cyber attack in October 2016 which saw hackers make off with the data of 57 million users (50 million customers and 7 million drivers) of the ride-sharing app which included the names, email addresses and phone numbers of the victims.
Uber paid the hackers $100,000 (Rs 64.75 lakh) to delete the compromised data stolen from its records and keep news of the breach quiet.
When the October 2016 attack occurred Uber was negotiating with US regulators who were investigating separate claims of privacy violations by the ride-sharing service. However instead of informing regulators about the latest breach in its security, Uber covered the news up.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who joined the company in September addressed the issue in a statement, "You may be asking why we are just talking about this now, a year later. I had the same question, so I immediately asked for a thorough investigation of what happened and how we handled it. None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it. While I can't erase the past, I can commit on behalf of every Uber employee that we will learn from our mistakes."
The Uber October 2016 hack investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the ride-sharing service has fired its Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan along with one of his deputies who helped cover up the breach.
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The hack and Uber's subsequent response is just the latest symptom of a company that has been on a downward spiral for over a year, getting into fights with rivals like Google and losing its co-founder and former CEO over his leadership of the company.
Whether new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is able to stem the rot, is something only time will tell, and for the sake of the company and its self-driving hopes of the future, we do hope he is successful.
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