The title Uber unscrewed by 4% on Wall Street on Friday.

Why ?

Because the Californian company was the victim of a hack, by a hacker who claims to be 18 years old.

And who seems to have managed to access Uber's internal system, in particular its source code and its internal emails.

“We are currently dealing with a cybersecurity incident,” the group tweeted Thursday evening, indicating that it was “in contact with the authorities” on this subject.

On Friday, Uber clarified that the hacker did not seem to have accessed sensitive user data (address, trip history, etc.), and that all of its tools were operational.

Hacked source code

According to the

New York Times

, an 18-year-old hacker obtained access codes to Uber's internal network by posing as a member of the technical team to an employee.

He would then have accessed the intranet, the source code as well as emails, according to the daily, which received screenshots from the hacker in support of his assertions.

Several cybersecurity specialists also said they had been in contact with the one who presented himself as the hacker.

The latter used Slack messaging to post a pornographic image, accompanied by the mocking message “Fuck you, wankers”.

Uber employees first believed it was a joke, before realizing it was serious.

Lawsuit for covering up a previous hack

The incident comes as the trial of former Uber IT security officer Joe Sullivan is being held this week in San Francisco.

The 50-year-old is accused of having concealed, in 2016, a computer attack which had allowed hackers to get their hands on the personal data of around 57 million users of the platform.

According to the indictment, Joe Sullivan, who was fired in November 2017, also arranged for the payment of a $100,000 ransom to the hackers behind the attack.

The affair had not been revealed until a year later.

In 2018, Uber reached an out-of-court settlement with prosecutors in 50 US states, which provided for the payment of $148 million in compensation, in total, for its delay in disclosing the attack to the regulator as well as to the general public.


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  • Uber

  • Cybersecurity

  • cyberattack

  • Piracy