Uber bought the silence of hackers

Security: The VTC service has just revealed to have been the victim of a hacking that has led to the theft of personal data of 57 million users including nearly 7 million drivers. Uber paid the pirates $ 100,000 to keep them quiet.

This is yet another turpitude that Uber would probably have done well. Dara Khosrowshahi, the new boss of the VTC service who is working to restore the company's somewhat damaged image, has just made another sensational revelation . In 2016, cyber criminals hacked a GitHub server and accessed the personal data of 57 million users. They were able to download certain items such as names, email addresses and phone numbers.

About 7 million Uber drivers are among the victims and 600,000 of them based in the United States have had their driver's license number downloaded. Uber ensures that no other sensitive data (credit card, date of birth, social security number, etc.) has been compromised and that measures have been taken immediately to secure this breach.

Security officers transferred; Prevented victims

The perpetrators were quickly identified but Uber chose to smother the case by paying a ransom of $ 100,000 to obtain the silence of the perpetrators. It should be noted that at the time of the incident, Uber was in discussion with the Federal Trade Commission about its management of user data.

Dara Khosrowshahi, who says she learned about piracy recently, took immediate action. Joe Sullivan, the director of security and one of his assistants Craig Clark were fired. The victims have been notified and the drivers concerned benefit from a program of protection against identity theft. This transparency operation falls when Uber is in talks with SoftBank for the sale of part of its capital.