Uber paid off hackers to cover up a cyberattack exposing 57m people’s data

Dara K. fired Uber's chief security officer after learning the company had bribed hackers $100k to cover up a massive data breach for over a year.

SERIOUSLY???

Uber paid off hackers to cover up a cyberattack exposing 57m people’s data

Yup. Yesterday, in a company blog post, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi revealed yet another skeleton in Uber’s closet: a massive breach of its users’ personal data that the company intentionally hid from the public for over a year.

According to Bloomberg, this also included a $100k bribe to the hackers involved in exchange for keeping the attack under wraps.

The hack included names and license numbers of 600k+ drivers, as well as names, emails, and phone numbers of 57m users.

DK says he only recently learned of the October 2016 attack but has made swift moves to oust 2 execs involved in the cover-up, including chief security officer Joe Sullivan.

So who else knew about this? We’ll give you one guess…

Ding ding ding — it was Travis.

The exiled founder reportedly learned of the incident last November, just a month after the attack, amidst a settlement with the FTC over privacy violations of its drivers and users.

And, though the company was legally obligated to report the discovery to regulators and those affected, he instead chose to pay off the hackers to cover their tracks — leaving Dara to clean up the mess.

Now DK’s out for justice

On top of the firings and notifying the feds, he’s recruited Matt Olsen, cybersecurity expert and former general counsel of the NSA, to advise him. The company will also provide free credit monitoring for drivers affected by the breach.

Gee, thanks Equifax!

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