Data Breach Cover-Up By Uber Attracts Britain Regulators’ Concerns


11/22/2017

The fate of Uber on the compromise of customer privacy policies, as the company failed to notify its customers as well as regulators, remains to be decided while the regulatory body said that companies could be subject to “higher fines” for deliberate concealing of breaches.



On Wednesday, the “data protection” regulating body of Britain expressed “huge concerns” as the news of Uber paying off “$100,000” secretly to hackers for covering up “a massive breach of customer and driver data”, compromising on “data policies and ethics” surfaced.
 
In a statement, the Deputy Commissioner of the “UK Information Commissioner’s Office”, James Dipple-Johnstone said:
“Deliberately concealing breaches from regulators and citizens could attract higher fines for companies”.
 
The current penalty under British law of failure on any organisations’ part to “notify affected users and regulators when data breaches occur” can soar up to “500,000 pounds”. According to Uber’s “new management”, the information of data breach affecting “about Uber 57 million accounts” was a matter that “learned recently”, while the data theft had taken place in 2016.
 
The C.E.O. of Uber Dara Khosrowshahi, who took the place of “co-founder Travis Kalanick” in the month of August, assured that “two senior security officials” who were involved in the “cover-up” process have been fired. While, Uber maintains that the company was “in the process of notifying various regulatory authorities”, while declining to any further comments.
 
 
 
References:
reuters.com