MASSIVE PIRACY AT UBER OR THE SILENCE OF HACKERS PURCHASED

"None of this should have happened, and I will not look for excuses." On Tuesday, November 21, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi revealed that data from 57 million users around the world had been hacked in 2016.

These are the names, email addresses and phone numbers of 57 million Uber users that have been stolen by hackers . Among them, 600,000 American drivers, whose driver's license numbers are also included in the stolen data.

On the other hand, Uber asserts that no banking information has been leaked, nor are birth dates, travel histories, or social security numbers (important in the United States).

The management says it has found "no evidence of fraud or fraudulent use related to this incident", and "monitors the affected accounts".

At the moment, there is no information on the nationalities of the affected users.

But according to Uber, these data have not been exploited, sold or published online ... especially since Dara Khosrowshahi explains that she "identified the individuals" responsible for the piracy and "obtained the assurance that the pirated data had been destroyed. ".

And the Bloomberg chain, to reveal the bottom of the case . The US media claims that Uber paid a ransom of 100,000 dollars (85,000 euros) to hackers in exchange for the removal of these data and their silence!

For Uber users would not have to take any specific steps related to this hacking. However, it is still better to "regularly check their bank accounts and Uber" , to ensure that there is no abnormal activity. The American drivers concerned will be warned individually.

According to Bloomberg, the two hackers had access to files used by Uber engineers and stored on GitHub - a major online platform used by developers around the world to share their work.

According to US laws companies are obliged to inform their users and the authorities, in case of leakage of sensitive information. However, Uber waited more than a year before revealing this piracy.

The New York public prosecutor and the British data protection authority have opened investigations. Uber's announcement "raises serious concerns about how it protects its data and its ethics," the British authority said in a statement. "Deliberately hiding security loopholes in the eyes of regulators and citizens may require larger fines for businesses. "

However, some experts say hackers who have names, e-mails and phone numbers can mount phishing campaigns by creating fake emails from Uber, which invite victims to "confirm" their contact details. We are in fact more or less doomed to trust applications. We must therefore avoid giving our contact information to those we do not use and / or who do not inspire confidence. At the very least, use an alternative email address for this kind of service, different from the main address.

Let's not forget that cyberattacks are a new form of economic warfare !! Massive hackers of corporate data are proliferating in the United States. But most of the companies involved choose to inform their users to change their passwords and notify the authorities.

The biggest cyberattack in history touched in 2013 Yahoo! with 3 billion user accounts affected. Revealed in December 2016, the scale of piracy, initially estimated at 1 billion accounts, was revised upwards last month. But it did not concern passwords or bank details, assured the American group.

What risk Uber? Fines , no doubt, especially since there is obviously concealment. To Donald Trump's team could be more conciliatory than the previous administration would have been.

And in Europe, the General Regulation for Data Protection (GDPR) is expected in May, which will expose companies that have lost personal data to fines of up to 4% of their turnover. That's about 260 million dollars in the case of Uber.

However, the reputation of Uber already tarnished by several scandals (use of software to make his cars invisible to the eyes of the police) can not get out of it.