Uber Fesses Up to Cyber Attack That Affected 57 Million Users
Last year, Uber, the popular on-demand car service, was apparently hacked. Didn't know about it? Well, that's because they didn't want you to.
Time.com reports the company finally came clean about the cyber attack — and the subsequent cover-up — on Tuesday. Personal information, including email addresses and phone numbers, were stolen from roughly 57 million Uber users. Credit cards and social security numbers were apparently not compromised.
Uber customers, however, were not the only ones affected. Time.com also reports that the driver's license numbers of 600,000 Uber drivers were stolen as well.
According to The Guardian, Uber confirmed it had "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," says Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on the company's website. "While I can't erase the past, I can commit on behalf of every Uber employee that we will learn from our mistakes. We are changing the way we do business, putting integrity at the core of every decision we make and working hard to earn the trust of our customers."
Khosrowshahi has since let two employees go that were said to be responsible for keeping the breach under wraps. Back in June, the company's former CEO Travis Kalanick was removed from his post after he "encouraged employees to push legal limits," including sexual harassment.
Have you been affected by the Uber hack? Let us know in the comments below.