Uber has experienced a data breach that exposed at least 50,000 driver’s personal details. The news broke late in the week that the company had encountered a data breach by an undisclosed third-party early in 2014. However, the news didn’t break now because it was only just discovered. Rather, Uber noted that they had been notified of the breach by an internal audit just a few months after the breach occurred. Which raises serious questions about why the company decided to wait until now to release the findings.
The individuals who were exposed with get a year membership to Experian to have their credit monitored since the breach included obtaining the names and driver’s license numbers of at least 50,000 drivers. The data breach might not seem like as serious of a concern if it were not for the fact that the company decided to wait nearly 5 months before they actually came forward with the information of the breach. This diversion of trust is ultimately the kind of thing that can drive a serious stake between customers and the company.
Even though the information that was lost was employee information – when a company is operating in the digital age it is expected to handle that type of information, and digital security as a whole – with the utmost concern and caution. Many companies have come under fire for not providing thorough enough security, and giving these hackers easy access to something that companies big and small should be investing more money into. At the end of the day, this is really a corporate matter of playing damage control. In this case, Uber made a calculated decision that the benefits of waiting to release the information would far outweigh the potential cost of releasing the information while also fighting a lot of other battles throughout this country – and globally.
http://www.thehoopsnews.com/2015/02/27/3612/fcc-vote-is-not-end-of-net-neutrality/
Uber has had a rough year, and this simply proves that 2014 was even worse for the rideshare company than previously thought. Now, the company has the opportunity to pick up the pieces and move on, while still trying to keep together the larger problems that exist. As long as employees and consumers feel confident that their information is safe, then there shouldn’t be any issues moving forward – but at the very least it is time for Uber to invest more into the cyber security space – since they were clearly breached on a pretty significant scale.
