Is Uber Safe? Latest Hack Has Many Nervous
While you were sleeping, another hack hit Uber the ride sharing service popular with many here in West Texas and nationwide. Uber is reaching out to law enforcement officials due to the hack. It is described as very serious by security experts.
An engineer says the intruder provided evidence that they had gained access to crucial systems at the ride-hailing service.
It's really bad. Uber and Yuga labs staff says the hackers accessed a lot of Uber files, including compete access to the Amazon and Google-hosted cloud environments where Uber stores its source code and customer data.
There is where it really gets scary for customers. Even though security experts say this attack seems more motivated by a desire for attention or publicity, The New York TImes is reporting that the hacker reported being 18 years old who says he broke in to show that Uber has weak security. The hacker went on to say that he gained access to the systems by persuading an Uber employee to hand over a password that gave them entry.
As of now, Uber says operations have not been affected, but the fact that hackers may know your account information, where you go on Uber, and many other pieces of intimate information stored on Uber's networks is very unsettling. This is not the first time Uber was hacked.
In 2016 Uber paid 148 million dollars to settle claims related to a large scale data breach that exposed the personal information of more than 25 million U.S. users.