Uber Confirms Data Breach

Six years after its last data breach, Uber has confirmed another. However, this time, the attacker claimed to be just 18. This 18-year-old also claimed to be behind a second data breach as well, except this time, it was gaming files for upcoming GTA VI that were hacked.

For this attack, the interloper convinced an Uber employee to give them a password by saying they were corporate information technology personnel. No one has identified the hacker's method to get around the two-step verification process.

How and When Did the Attack Take Place?

On September 15, 2022, an intruder in the corporation’s internal messaging service, Slack, announced to the company that they had hacked the system. Employees initially thought nothing of it, taking it for a joke. The statement "I announce I am a hacker and Uber has suffered a data breach," was sent out to Uber employees by an unknown entity. They explained what had been hacked and listed confidential information they supposedly had access to.

What Does the Hacker Have Access To?

"They pretty much have full access to Uber," Sam Curry, a security engineer at Yuga Labs who, since the breach, has been in correspondence with the person claiming responsibility, was quoted as saying, "This is a total compromise, from what it looks like." As can be expected, many international company customers fear for their privacy and safety. Tons of private information can be leaked, and consumers fear the worst.

Uber Announced the Breach Through Twitter

Representatives at Uber reported the breach with a Twitter post. The New York Times has been in correspondence with the accredited party and was the one to break the news.

The hacker has been speaking with officials at various security firms and the press, explaining much of the process of the intrusion. Uber has responded to this multiple times using social media statements, stating the next day that their internal systems were back online and all of their consumer apps and services were operational.

What Will Become of the Stolen Information?

Sam Curry interacted with the hacker and said, "My gut feeling is that it seems like they are out to get as much attention as possible." It was said by the individuals conversing with the hacker that it was likely more about publicity than actually doing anything to harm anyone. Yet, Acronis' CISO Kevin Reed stated in a LinkedIn post,

"...If you had your data in Uber, there's high chance so many people have access to it. Say, if they know your email, they may know where you live. This particular attacker may not exfiltrated the data, but there is no way of knowing it and the whole story makes me think other, less loud parties compromised Uber."

What Can You Do in the Aftermath?

Following any type of data breach, make sure you are checking your credit scores, monitoring your identity, and double-checking that there are no unverified purchases on any of your credit cards, not just whatever credit card was attached to your Uber account. Do everything you can to keep yourself safe online and in the real world. Invest in software and computer protection so you can focus on having fun online without worrying.