Uber was hacked by an 18-year-old hacker

An 18-year-old hacker has gained access to Uber’s systems. In other words, Uber has been hacked. It is currently still investigating what exactly happened and what steps the company should take.

Uber hacked

The hacker succeeded by simply extracting the password from an Uber employee. A Yuga Labs security researcher (via New York Times) has been in contact with the boy and says Uber has been completely compromised. However, the hacker did not install any ransomware: he would only have stolen data. The hacker indicates that he mainly wants to prove to Uber that the security is bad. He also wanted Uber drivers to earn more. Now drivers have to pay a quarter of the fare to Uber.

It is unknown whether the hacker and Uber are still in talks. The hacker would have access to the company’s source code, internal systems and email. This is not the first time this has happened to Uber. In 2016, Uber was also hacked: the data of 57 million Uber customers was then on the street. But then there was a sort of ransom, where Uber paid $100,000 to make sure the data wouldn’t get out.

Vulnerability

It is currently unclear what happened to Uber and what it will do next to fix the vulnerability. In any case, it has taken several systems offline just to be sure. For example, the Amazon Web Services console, VMware ESXi virtual machines, Google Workspace admin dashboard, repositories, Slack server and HackerOne account are out. Uber was notified by the hacker via Slack: at first it was even thought to be a joke, but it soon turned out not to be the case.

Exciting times for Uber, but also embarrassing times, precisely because it has happened before. On the other hand, your security often depends on your employees: if for whatever reason they leave a password or USB stick lying around, it can be done quickly.

Do you use Uber? Are you concerned about your data? Leave it now in the comments.