Uber covered up a hack that affected 57 million customers and drivers

Uber has had a rough time during the past year, it has been banned in London and suspended its services in Quebec due to new regulations. However, a new report by Bloomberg has dropped another bombshell, which involves the company reportedly covering up a large-scale hack that compromised the private information of both customers and drivers.

Uber has reportedly been well aware of the breach - which happened in 2016. In addition to this, it was revealed that the company paid the hackers $100,000 to delete the sensitive data, once it discovered the breach. Although it is not known which countries are affected by the hack, the firm offered its drivers free credit monitoring protection after the fact. Customers who were affected, however, will not get any such offer.

Uber's Chief Executive, Dara Khosrowshahi commented on the breach:

"While we have not seen evidence of fraud or misuse tied to the incident, we are monitoring the affected accounts and have flagged them for additional fraud protection. 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."

Joe Sullivan, the Chief Security Officer at Uber resigned after the news broke. According to the report, the hack was executed by two individuals who gained access to a private area on Github, the open source community developer site. Once in, they were able to find the login credentials to the company's Amazon Web Services account. Data that were compromised included email addresses, phone numbers, and in the case of drivers, their license numbers. No credit card details or identification numbers - or social security numbers - were leaked.

Uber, however, failed to disclose the hack to regulators at the time, which could prove even more detrimental. It already paid a $20,000 fine for not making public a previous breach which revealed 50,000 driver's information in 2014.

The company did open up a resource website, where those who believe they are affected by the Uber hack can find information and assistance. You can visit the page here.

Source: Bloomberg