This week, we found out that Uber was hacked in 2016, and lost driver’s license numbers, phone numbers, and emails. They did NOT lose social security numbers though or credit card information as we know now.
The worst part about this is Uber did exactly what they aren’t supposed to do, they didn’t tell anyone about the hack, and they paid two hackers $100,000 each as ransom.
Mundane information may not seem like a big deal, but it can help hackers steal identities, and cat-phish people into different situations.
If you think there is weird activity on your credit card, it is recommended to look into it and maybe even freeze your credit card. It’s worth looking into, as 57 million people got hacked, it could be you.
http://fortune.com/2017/11/22/uber-hack-were-you-impacted/
I feel that Uber took a step in the wrong direction when it came to handling this situation. Millions of users had no idea that their information was stolen and Uber had complete knowledge but didn’t alert their users about the breach. They decided to think about their reputation first rather than their millions of users. Many of these people had valuable information stolen that could be used against them in a negative way. Although Uber did pay the hackers and handled that part of the issue correctly, I think they were wrong not to let everyone know. People need to know when their information has been stolen so that they can stay safe. But even though something as big as this happened to Uber, people are still going to use their service because they dominate this market and are fast and easy.
I was not aware of this so I had to read the article link you provided in order to get more information about this subject. This article is scary to me because I am a very frequent Uber user—I think all college kids are! While I do not think it is surprising that accounts were hacked, I am very surprised with the way it was handled. It upsets me a lot that the company paid the hackers instead of notifying all the customers. It really makes me question the morals of the company in which I am a loyal customer. It seems that the company handled the situation in very immature way in order to save face. I think that instead of trying to do that, they should have found an efficient way to notify their customers. I think this would have been the better way to ultimately save face because they would have kept the respect of their customers and kept their favorable reputation. However, I also can see the other side of it. I can understand that Uber was worried that it would be the end of their company and that telling the customers would just make them panic. However, if it were me that was hacked I definitely would have wanted to know so I could take the proper actions which is why I stick to what I said earlier.
This does not come to me as a surprise as Uber has received a lot of negativity in the press lately. Recently, Uber’s general manager received backlash after it was revealed that he used the private and personal information of a Buzzfeed Journalists uber account in order to track her location.This led many uber users to wonder who can access their specific location, credit card number, and personal information and why they have the ability to do so. As a result of these unethical practices, Uber’s manager is under investigation for accessing that information without permission and the question of ethics in user privacy is a hot topic. As an avid uber-user, all of this negative attention is really worrisome. Hacking is a huge problem and I think that Uber has a whole has to do everything they can in order to ensure that their costumer’s information is safe and in good hands. If they can not do this, I don’t see Uber lasting much longer.
It’s pretty upsetting, but not surprising, that Uber did not disclose that they were hacked. Last year, Uber went through a very public and messy sexual harassment scandal. Their failure to disclose seems strategic. Their company could have tanked if they disclosed a hacking like this. This is not to say that they did the right thing. Paying the hackers is something that you should not do. You should inform the people who use your product that they could have their data compromised.
I think that dealing with hacks should be an internal thing. From experience, people tend to not function correctly under fear. Therefore, telling someone their information was hacked before the company even has a chance to evaluate the situation seems incorrect. Telling the consumer right away might be the ethical thing to do but it might not be the smartest business move because people will begin to panic. If the company can secure the information and get rid of the threat without anyone knowing, I feel that that is the best way to handle the situation. People don’t need to know everything right away without all the facts.
Reading this information makes me very uneasy. I use Uber on a regular basis and my credit card is hooked up to it. They have my information and not telling the their consumers about a hack that affected so many accounts is not okay to me. I believe Uber is going to get a lot of backlash for the decision they made to pay off the hackers rather than inform the public of the situation. If the government is not supposed to negotiate with terrorists, why is a company allowed to negotiate with online “terrorists?” For the people’s who accounts were affected, they may have not had any idea that suspicious activity on their account could have been from this issue. Uber needs to own up to their mistake and try to gain back the trust with their customers. I know I will be a lot more cautious now.
I found this entry to be very interesting because I use Uber very often. As a frequent user of any application or site, I would hope to be informed when the company is hacked. I think it is extremely wrong and immoral that Uber covered this up. I am glad that I am someone who monitors my debit card transactions very closely, so I would have seen if my account had been hacked. I also think it was extremely risk for Uber to not tell any users about this hack. Even if no social security numbers or credit cards were leaked, a hacker still could have gained a lot of information from this hack. They not only put their own company at risk but also all of the companies customers. Waiting a year to go public with this hack probably did the opposite of what the company was trying to do by hiding it, ruined its reputation more. http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/21/technology/uber-hacked-2016/index.html
This article was able to help me learn a little more about what happened. Apparently Uber is claiming that they paid off the hackers 100,000 to delete the information, this seems pretty sketchy to me. Although it may appear that data like credit card numbers, SSN, and locations were not hacked, who knows if these hackers are being truthful about their discoveries. This scares me and makes we worried about what other companies may be hiding…….
Has anyone here noticed about such kind of people advertising that, they can get you a uber ride in discounted prices? After I asked about one of these people where they get the discount and what is the discount, I was surprised by how large the discount can be, it is like they hacked into someone else’s account and stole their credit card to get us a ride. I was so suspicious and immediately asked a friend who might know how these thing works. Then I got the answer form him, those are all hacked accounts, and bad people are taking advantages of it. The worst thing is, people whose account was hacked would call their bank to reject the transaction, thus those uber drivers would get nothing eventually. People whose account has been hacked would take th erisk of losing their personal information including credit/debit account information. Hacked account can harm both users and drivers, so the way uber company deal with it is really inappropriate.
I decided to comment on this because my dad’s credit card recently just got hacked. I think Uber handled this situation wrong. Not making this public, put more people are risk. Uber put their reputation at the moment over it’s customers personal information. I feel like Uber will lose a lot of business if people don’t think their information is safe. Especially if their information could be getting hacked any second and their not being informed that is potentially going on. Uber has now become a risky app due to this. Every single customer that uber had should have been reached out to when this happened so they could protect themselves. Poor play on Uber’s part.
This is pretty unsettling as someone who uses Uber often. And quite honestly, I think the more unsettling part is that Uber didn’t report this until a year after it happened. It was a very selfish move by them as they were more worried about keeping a clean reputation than the financial safety and well-being of their customers. However, while negotiating with criminals usually isn’t something to be commended for, it was probably a good move for Uber to pay the hackers to keep the stolen information secure. I’m sure they will get a lot of backlash for this, if they haven’t already, but I’m not convinced it will drastically affect their profits. People are still going to use Uber because of it’s convenience and it’s strong place in the market. That being said, Uber needs to be very careful moving forward, as they are on thin ice.
I think Uber is in big trouble here. It is one thing to get hacked, but its a whole other ordeal to be hacked, and just not tell anyone. This is a huge problem because if you did see mischievous activities on your accounts, you would have no idea it stems from your Uber account. It may not be the most vital information they lost, but they now allow unwanted contact from malicious advertisers/data users to their loyal customer base. And the fact that they payed a ransom to an online “terrorist” makes it even more shady. I think this story is going to pick up steam soon, especially when people realize not only your financial privacy is at stake, but your informative privacy as well. Uber is already a controversial company, but this takes them to a whole new level. Beware Uber, breaches of privacy are no laughing matter.