{"id":82651,"date":"2017-11-21T17:31:10","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T01:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/securingtomorrow.mcafee.com\/?p=82651"},"modified":"2025-08-13T23:01:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T06:01:16","slug":"uber-data-breach-consumers-need-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/privacy-identity-protection\/uber-data-breach-consumers-need-know\/","title":{"rendered":"The Uber Data Breach: What Consumers Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ride-sharing apps are one of the most successful innovations of the modern digital age. Practically everyone who has a smart phone uses them. When it was discovered today that Uber, the leader in the ride-sharing space, was hit with a massive data breach<\/a> back in 2016, all of our ears perked up. Let’s look at what happened, and what consumers need to know.<\/p>\n

So far, the precise details on the hack are still unclear\u2014however, according to Bloomberg<\/a>, (who broke the story earlier today) two cybercriminals were able to access a private area of Github, an online resource for developers. From there, they seem to have found Uber’s log-in credentials to Amazon Web Services (Amazon’s cloud computing service). Then, these hackers were able to steal 57 million names, email addresses, and mobile phone numbers. Uber said within that number, 600,000 drivers had their names and license details exposed.\u00a0A resource page for those affected has been set up<\/a>\u00a0and drivers have been offered free credit monitoring protection. But as of now, affected customers will not be given the same resources.<\/p>\n

How to Safeguard Sensitive Data<\/h2>\n

This cyberattack is a testament to the growing trend to target companies whose rapid growth is stifled by their ability to safeguard sensitive data. So now the question is, what do the impacted customers and drivers do next?<\/p>\n