Global transportation tech company Uber concealed a massive breach of personal information of over 57 million customers and drivers in October 2016, with the company acknowledging that it failed to notify individuals and regulators it has been revealed.
The company covered up the breach, and instead paid the hackers responsible $100,000 to delete data and keep the breach quiet.
Addressing the situation, new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi admitted that, while there was no excuse for the incident, he had “obtained assurances that the downloaded data had been destroyed”.
“None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, said in a statement to The Guardian: “While I can’t erase the past, I can commit on behalf of every Uber employee that we will learn from our mistakes.
“We are changing the way we do business, putting integrity at the core of every decision we make and working hard to earn the trust of our customers.”
It is thought the hackers managed to download data including names, email addresses and phone numbers, including driver license numbers of over 600,000 Uber drivers around the US.
Uber claims that other information, including credit card numbers, bank account details and birth dates were not compromised.
Khosrowshahi admitted that the breach had prompted him to take several measures, with the departure of two senior members of staff responsible fro the company’s 2016 response.
