Have you been hacked ?

Increasingly hacking has become a modern crime.  Despite millions being spent on security software to counter hacking it appears to be increasing. 
The big danger is storing sensitive individual information in one location.   Often this is cloud-based storage system.  Unfortunately with CLOUD as the name might suggest is stored off-site which in some ways increases the security threat.
Hackers come in all shapes and forms are motivated by various means.

Black Hackers as they are known are basically thieves trying to steal personal information that they are then used for their own financial gain.  Sometimes by selling on more time by blackmailing the owners or custodians of the information.
Then you have Hactivists those hacking for religious of political reason, some to expose wrongdoing or even revenge.
State-sponsored hackers basically trying to steal or control the military capabilities of another country.

Then there is the real scary one the Cyber Terrorist his goal is to cause mayhem throughout the world.
We are all targets and potential victims once you use the internet.  So if you for example book a holiday rental or buy a book online be sure your information is stored correctly. 

The latest corporate victim has been Uber and not for the first time.

Uber has become the latest company to reveal that it has been hacked after confirming that the details of some 57 million customers and around 600,000 drivers were leaked.

Understandably, the questions that customers and drivers will want asking is whether or not they’ve had their details leaked, what details were leaked and how dangerous this leak could be.

In 2016 a pair of individuals were able to hack into data that Uber had stored on a third-party cloud server.

Having gained access, the individuals were then able to steal information belonging to Uber and in turn demand a ransom from the company.

Those assurances obtained by Uber involved giving the two individuals $100,000 in exchange for their silence and the promise that the information wouldn’t be shared.

In a statement, Uber’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said:

“At the time of the incident, we took immediate steps to secure the data and shut down further unauthorized access by the individuals. We subsequently identified the individuals and obtained assurances that the downloaded data had been destroyed.”


What information was hacked and leaked?


Uber’s official advice following the hack is this:

“We do not believe any individual rider needs to take any action. We have seen no evidence of fraud or misuse tied to the incident. We are monitoring the affected accounts and have flagged them for additional fraud protection.”

Uber says it does not believe that any credit card or payment information was taken and has seen no evidence so far to suggest that it was.

Unfortunately for Uber, security experts believe that the situation is far more serious.

Tags :  Uber, holiday rentals,