Most people use services of online transportation network companies like Uber at one point of time, especially when you are visiting a new place or stranded in the middle of the night. You do so without suspecting that you personal details would be compromised but the recent shocking revelation by Uber have hinted that you could be one of the victims among the millions.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has revealed in a blogpost that personal information of 57 million Uber users around the world, including that of 600,000 drivers in the US, could have been downloaded by individuals from outside the company after accessing data stored on a third-party cloud-based service.
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The company said that the incident came to light in late 2016 but didn't breach their corporate systems or infrastructure.
The company's local arm has now revealed that 1.2 million Uber users out of the total 57 million, whose personal details may have been compromised, are from Australia along, according to Australian Financial Review. The report went on to say that the number, which "was an approximate figure because the app does not always record the country code where a customer lives", has been presented to the Australian Privacy Commissioner.
It is reported that about 2.7 million Uber users in the UK have been affected by the data breach.
Uber has admitted in a statement last week that two people from outside the company had downloaded personal details like names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers of millions of its consumers and drivers. However, it went on to say that the company's "forensics experts have not seen any indication that trip location history, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, Social Security numbers or dates of birth were downloaded."
"At the time of the incident, we took immediate steps to secure the data and shut down further unauthorised access by the individuals. We subsequently identified the individuals and obtained assurances that the downloaded data had been destroyed," said Khosrowshahi in a statement.
The company said that it hasn't seen evidence of fraud or misuse in connection with the incident but is "monitoring the affected accounts and have flagged them for additional fraud protection."
