Data breaches are all too common and for those whose lives and livelihoods are affected, they can be scary. We understand that there are nefarious characters out there; thieves who will do what they can to fraudulently steal information. But when their actions are compounded by cover-ups and falsehoods, who are the victims and who is responsible? Digital News Daily brought this news to us in their article, “Uber Data Breach Sparks Investigations, Lawsuits.”
Uber is facing new investigations by the government following the discovery of a 2016 data breach that affected 57 million people. The startling part of this is the company concealed the breach for one year. They supposedly even went as far as to pay hackers $100,000 to destroy the data.
The data included names, email addresses and phone numbers of around 50 million customers and 7 million drivers, and driver’s license numbers for 600,000 people. The Federal Trade Commission is also involved in the investigation and Uber’s security officer has been fired.
This story will continue to unfold in the coming months, but it is certainly discomforting as a consumer and an Uber customer.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
