Uber concealed massive hacking that exposed 57 million people’s data

Ride-hailing company Uber was hit by a major cyberattack, in which the personal data of 57 million customers and drivers were stolen and the firm concealed it for more than a year, Bloomberg said in a piece late Tuesday.

"This week, the ride-hailing company ousted Joe Sullivan, chief security officer, and one of his deputies for their roles in keeping the hack under wraps," Bloomberg said, adding that the data from October 2016 attack included names, email addresses and phone numbers of 50 million Uber riders around the world.

"The personal information of about 7 million drivers were accessed as well, including some 600,000 U.S. driver's license numbers. No Social Security numbers, trip location details or other data were taken," Uber was quoted as saying in the article.

"At the time of the incident, Uber was negotiating with U.S. regulators investigating separate claims of privacy violations. Uber now says it had a legal obligation to report the hack to regulators and to drivers whose license numbers were taken," Bloomberg said, adding that the company paid hackers $100,000 to delete the data and keep the hacking quiet.

"None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it. We are changing the way we do business," Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive officer of Uber was quoted as saying in the article.