Uber is attempting to squash the use of hacked customer accounts that have most likely been sold on the dark web and are currently being used in China.
Several Uber customers tweeted that their Uber app notified them that they had recently taken a Uber ride in China, when in fact they were nowhere near that country, according to Motherboard.
We now know one area Uber plans to invest in following the closing of its recent $1 billion funding round: security.
The ride-sharing startup plans to boost its security team from a staff of 25 to 100 by the end of 2015, Uber chief security officer Joe Sullivan told the Financial Times on Monday. Sullivan, a former assistant United States attorney who specialized in high tech crimes and hacking, joined Uber in April 2015 after a stint as Facebook’s chief security officer that lasted a little over five years.
A New York-based entrepreneur has filed a lawsuit against Uber and its founder, Travis Kalanick, and other co-defendants, alleging that they stole the idea for the phone-enabled on-demand car service.
The suit, which was filed Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that Kevin Halpern founded a startup called Celluride back in 2003, long before Uber. Halpern sued Uber for misappropriation of trade secrets, conversion, and breach of contract, and he wants the court to assign "compensatory damages." (Celluride now appears to be defunct.)
Transport service company Uber has had its fair share of problems through the years, but lately instances of hacked accounts and fraudulently booked trips seem to have increased, fueling speculations that the company has suffered a data breach.
Alan White has a good collection of recent Twitter complaints about hacked accounts, changed emails and phone numbers, and fraudulent trips charged to the legitimate user's payment card.
After a Motherboard report in March said that details for at least some Uber accounts had been accessed by hackers who were selling them online for as little as $1, the publication is back with a followup to the story. Now, it looks like American Uber customers have been targeted by hackers, who may have obtained access to some accounts.
Some Uber customers have taken to Twitter to reveal that their Uber accounts have been used by unknown, unauthorized people to book and pay for rides, sometimes in markets other than the U.S.
Joe Sullivan, the Facebook executive in charge of keeping the social network’s 1.3 billion users safe, is leaving to become Uber’s first chief security officer.
The move is a major talent grab by the $40 billion car-hailing-app company, and it comes as cofounder and CEO Travis Kalanick grapples with security concerns escalating so rapidly they threaten to slow Uber’s momentum.
One dollar may not get you much these days, but it could buy you a stolen password to an Uber account and free car rides around town.
Vendors on dark net sites such as AlphaBay, which often sell illegal products like drugs and counterfeit goods, are offering active Uber username and login details for $1, according to Motherboard. Other information that comes with the purchase includes partial credit card data and telephone numbers.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and nearly 30 other Uber employees have been charged on suspicion of operating illegal taxi services in South Korea, the country’s Yonhap News Agency reports.
Korean police announced the move on Tuesday, and say that if Uber continues doing business in the same way, officials will seek an arrest warrant against Kalanick.
Ride-sharing service Uber is once again offering customers in Seoul a free ride.
Announced Wednesday, the move is the latest attempt by the company -- which provides a car-hailing app that connects riders and drivers -- to offer its service in a city that's proved unwilling to budge on allowing Uber to operate legally.
App-based taxi firm Uber is once again attracting the wrong type of headlines after exposing internal data on user accounts and phone numbers through its lost and found database.
According to Motherboard, the internal database was accessible online for around 5 hours on Monday before being replaced with a 404 error message.
