U.S. based taxi hailing app Uber, has announced that its database of drivers was exposed in a third-party attack last year, thus exposing information of over 50000 of its partner drivers.
Uber, confirming the breach, said that its investigations revealed that the breach happened on May 13 last year, with its investigators getting knowledge of the same on September 17.
Though the breach is massive, Uber says that it has not received any reports of actual misuse of any information as a result of this incident. The company has notified its drivers and asked them to keep a check on their credit reports for any fraudulent transactions.
Uber says that upon getting the knowledge of this breach, the company immediately changed its the access protocols for the database and began an in-depth investigation. Moreover, further investigations revealed that it was a ‘one-time’ unauthorized access by the attacker.
Uber is providing a free one-year membership of Experian’s® ProtectMyID® Alert to all drivers. The entire transcript of Uber’s blog post is as follows :
In late 2014, we identified a one-time access of an Uber database by an unauthorized third party. A small percentage of current and former Uber driver partner names and driver’s license numbers were contained in the database. Immediately upon discovery we changed the access protocols for the database, removing the possibility of unauthorized access. We are notifying impacted drivers, but we have not received any reports of actual misuse of information as a result of this incident.
Uber takes seriously our responsibility to safeguard personal information, and we are sorry for any inconvenience this incident may cause. In addition, today we filed a lawsuit that will enable us to gather information to help identify and prosecute this unauthorized third party.
Here’s what we know:
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On September 17, 2014, we discovered that one of our databases could potentially have been accessed by a third party.
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Upon discovery we immediately changed the access protocols for the database and began an in-depth investigation.
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Our investigation revealed that a one-time unauthorized access to an Uber database by a third party had occurred on May 13, 2014.
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Our investigation determined the unauthorized access impacted approximately 50,000 drivers across multiple states, which is a small percentage of current and former Uber driver partners.
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The files that were accessed contained only the name and driver’s license number of some driver partners.
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To date, we have not received any reports of actual misuse of any information as a result of this incident, but we are notifying impacted drivers and recommend these individuals monitor their credit reports for fraudulent transactions or accounts.
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Uber will provide a free one-year membership of Experian’s® ProtectMyID® Alert. If impacted driver partners have questions or need an alternative to enrolling online, please call
(877) 297-7780 and provide the Engagement number listed in the notification letter. -
We have also filed what is referred to as a “John Doe” lawsuit so that we are able to gather information that may lead to confirmation of the identity of the third party.
