Uber reveals hacking, 50K drivers may have been exposed

The company found out in September, but is only now notifying those drivers of the breach

Uber has had its fair share of scandals over the past year or so, from reports of potential fraud against Lyft, to the accusations that some of its drivers had raped their passengers, to that whole "let's discredit reporters" thing. So far, none of that has had much of an effect on the company, as it has raised billions of dollars since all of those things happened.

Now something has been revealed which may, finally, hurt Uber.

The company revealed in a blog post on Friday that, in May of last year, it was hacked, though Uber did not find out about the incident until September. It wasn't passenger information that was revealed, though; it was their drivers who were hit, including their name and driver’s license number.

"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," Katherine Tassi, Managing Counsel of Data Privacy at Uber, wrote.

"Immediately upon discovery we changed the access protocols for the database, removing the possibility of unauthorized access."

50,000 drivers across multiple states were potentially harmed by the breach, and the company says it is only now notifying those were compromised. There is no explaination for why it took so long for Uber to start notifying drivers about their information potentially being accessed; if the company found out about it in September, why weren't they told sooner?

VatorNews has reached out to Uber for further comment, and we will update if we learn more.

So far, it said, there has been no indication that any information has been misused. In addition, Uber also revealed that it has filed a lawsuit that will enable it to gather more information in order to help identify and prosecute the third party responsible for the hack.

The company also said it will be providing its driver with a free one-year membership of Experian’s ProtectMyID Alert to help keep them safe from future incidents.

"Uber takes seriously our responsibility to safeguard personal information, and we are sorry for any inconvenience this incident may cause."

So why might this be such a big deal to Uber, even more so than other scandals? Because it could affect the company's ability to compete.

Uber may be the biggest e-hailing service out there right now, but that doesn't mean it has no competition for its drivers, who have the choice to go with any service they would like. That is the defense that Uber gives for its price surging model: that if it doesn't raise prices, and give drivers a reason to choose Uber, they will simply go with another service that does.

Competition also led the company to introduce its perks program, called Momentum,  in the United States back in November and then in the United Kingdom in January.

Some of the rewards the company offers include free MOTs, discounts of up to 35% on vehicle servicing, and discounts on car washing and valeting. It also offers lifestyle perks, such as a discount on online accountancy support and software from Crunch, which will help drivers be more aware of the tax implications of their earnings. Momentum also offers a flat fee when sending money abroad.

The last thing that Uber needs is driving deflecting to its competition, but that is easy to see happening if they suddenly feel like their personal information is at risk. 

(Image source: cityhallblog.dallasnews.com)