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10 Facts About the Uber Hack That You Probably Should Know

2017-11-23 , 2:08 pm

It just feels like yesterday when I was telling you guys about Uber’s big dreams for the future—driverless flying ubers.

Okay, it was not yesterday but it was earlier this month.

Who would have thought, in a matter of weeks, things could go south for them.

I know Uber has been making the headlines for the past few days but don’t fret.

Let me break it down to you—piece by piece.

1) Hackers hacked into Uber’s server in 2016

Keep in mind that this happened yesteryear. I will tell you why soon enough. Just hang on tight, eh?

2) Personal data of Uber users were stolen

This includes drivers and riders.

Uber mentioned that the hackers found 57 million names, email addresses, and mobile numbers, Channel NewsAsia reported.

3) CEO Dara Khosrowshahi only knew about it recently

Dara Khosrowshahi was only appointed as CEO of Uber in August 2017.

He understands that the hackers broke into Uber’s cloud-based server for data and downloaded a “significant” amount of information.

‘None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” he told news media.

4) Uber paid the hackers off

You might be wondering: how did they manage to sweep this under the carpet?

The power of money, of course!

Uber paid the hackers US$100,000 to destroy the data and keep the breach quiet.

5) Two Uber personnel were fired

Uber mentioned that two members of the Uber information security team who led the coverup were let go from the company on Tuesday (21 Nov).

6) There was a different CEO when this scandal happened

Remember when I told you to remember the year 2016?

In 2016, Travis Kalanick was the former CEO aka Khosrowshahi’s predecessor.

He was aware of the breach but he just kept mum.

Maybe he is into the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” mantra.

7) Kalanick had no chill

Uber has become global and that is accredited to Kalanick’s brazen work ethics, Channel NewsAsia reported.

But his work style has also been criticised for fostering an environment of corruption and wrongdoing.

Honestly, it sounds like when Scar (from The Lion King) temporarily ruled Pride Lands.

Uber hired Khosrowshahi as they wanted to move past their previous scandals and mistakes.

I guess he is considered Simba?

Okay, I will stop with The Lion King reference.

8) Uber is doing some damage control

No use crying over spilled milk, unless it is almond milk cause that shit is expensive!

Uber is alerting drivers whose license numbers were stolen and they are also offering credit and identity theft protection.

They are also notifying regulators and monitoring affected rider accounts for signs of fraud.

9) Singapore’s phantom ride cases

For the past few weeks or so, Singaporeans have been complaining about being charged for mysterious rides in foreign currencies such as the US dollar, British pound and euro, Channel NewsAsia reported.

Even I saw someone complaining about it on my newsfeed.

If you can’t read:

Guys, please be careful when adding your debit or credit card to Uber Account. This is what I woke up to. A negative amount in my bank account.

I got a huge shocked and went to check on my transactions. Turns out all transactions were made from Uber and amount is in USD. More than 30 transactions were made from 13 November amounting to a total of $1.3k +. It would have been worse if I didn’t check my bank statement. Just 5 days and 1.3k gone. Wow I can’t believe that Uber’s privacy security is so bad???

I believe someone from the US hacked into Uber’s security system and attained my bank account info. Also, I can’t even delete the card payment in Uber Account. This is super ridiculous. So friends, please try to use cash to pay for your trips instead.

Lost all my trust in Uber already.. really shocking experience…..

UberSg

She also updated her post stating that Uber is revving the case and will have the problem resolved.

10) These are two different cases

Uber “has no reason to believe” that the global data breach is related to the phantom ride cases in Singapore, Channel NewsAsia reported.

“We have no reason to believe these two events are linked,” an Uber spokesperson told Channel NewsAsia.

So are Singaporean users affected by the data breach?

Uber is notifying various regulatory and government authorities and until they have completed the process, they won’t be able to get into details, Channel NewsAsia reported.

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This article was first published on goodyfeed.com