Uber's major security breach affected 815,000 Canadians

Dec 13 2017, 4:15 am

Uber has revealed that about 815,000 Canadian riders and drivers were affected by its security breach last year.

In November, the ride sharing company shared news of a major data security breach that took place in October 2016.

During the breach, hackers were able to download files containing the names and driver’s license numbers of around 600,000 drivers in the US, along with personal information of 57 million Uber users around the world.

Uber said that for riders, this information included the names, email addresses, and mobile phone numbers related to accounts globally.

As for the Canadians involved, Uber states that this is an approximation of how many people are affected rather than an accurate and definitive count because sometimes the information they get through the app or website is not the same as the country where a person actually lives.

“We do not believe any individual rider needs to take any action. We have seen no evidence of fraud or misuse tied to the incident,” Uber said in a statement. “We encourage all our users to regularly monitor their accounts for any issues.

Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, spokesperson for Uber Canada, added that privacy is important at Uber. “We will continue to work with the Privacy Commissioner on this matter,” he said.

In Toronto, City Council is looking for some answers as to how this breach affected the local community.

During last week’s meeting, City Council approved motion to demand Uber disclose information related to the breach in order to know how many people in Toronto had their personal data accessed, and what private information was released.

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