Uber’s laptop community was breached on Thursday, main the corporate to take a number of of its inner communications and engineering techniques offline because it investigated the extent of the hack.
Staff had been instructed to not use the corporate’s inner messaging service, Slack, and located that different inner techniques had been inaccessible, mentioned two staff, who weren’t licensed to talk publicly.
An Uber spokesman mentioned the corporate was investigating the breach and contacting regulation enforcement officers.
Shortly earlier than the Slack system was taken offline on Thursday afternoon, Uber staff obtained a message that learn: “I announce I’m a hacker and Uber has suffered a knowledge breach.” The message went on to listing a number of inner databases that the hacker claimed had been compromised.
The hacker compromised a employee’s Slack account and used it to ship the message, the Uber spokesman mentioned. It appeared that the hacker was later capable of acquire entry to different inner techniques, posting an express picture on an inner data web page for workers.
It was not the primary time {that a} hacker has stolen information from Uber. In 2016, hackers stole data from 57 million driver and rider accounts, then approached Uber and demanded $100,000 to delete their copy of the info. Uber organized the fee, however stored the breach a secret for greater than a yr.
Joe Sullivan, who was Uber’s prime safety govt on the time, was fired for his function within the firm’s response to the hack. Mr. Sullivan was charged with obstructing justice for failing to reveal the breach to regulators and is at the moment on trial.
Attorneys for Mr. Sullivan have argued that different staff had been accountable for regulatory disclosures and mentioned the corporate had scapegoated Mr. Sullivan.