Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57 Million People
* Company paid hackers $100,000 to delete info, keep quiet
* Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan and another exec ousted
Bloomberg reports, that Uber was hacked of personal data from 57 millions drivers and riders. Then, instead of reporting the crime, they paid extortion to the criminals and hid the breach.
“None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over as chief executive officer in September, said in an emailed statement. “We are changing the way we do business.”
Travis Kalanick, Uber’s co-founder and former CEO, learned of the hack in November 2016, a month after it took place, the company said. Uber said it was obligated to report the hack of driver’s license information and failed to do so.
“At the time of the incident, we took immediate steps to secure the data and shut down further unauthorized access by the individuals,” Khosrowshahi said. “We also implemented security measures to restrict access to and strengthen controls on our cloud-based storage accounts.”