Someone just hacked Uber's internal systems causing a worldwide shutdown... and the culprit is apparently an 18-year-old.
👉Background: Uber is the world’s largest ride-sharing platform. It was founded in 2009 and quickly grew to become one of the world's most valuable startups with 118 million people using the Uber app in 2021.
👉 What happened: Late last week, a hacker posted a message on Uber’s internal Slack system. “I announce I am a hacker and Uber has suffered a data breach”.
👉 What else: The hacker shared confidential company information and posted a hashtag saying that Uber underpays its drivers. And despite Uber’s bug-bounty-program, it still wasn't able to uncover this major vulnerability internally.
💡A bug bounty program is where big companies offer individuals big bucks for identifying big bugs in their software systems...which kinda feels like poking a bear.
💡Bug bounty programs mean that companies have more eyes on their systems, which increases the likelihood of a major vulnerability being identified early.
💡 According to Deloitte, the average data breach costs $4.35m USD each so it makes sense that Facebook has actually paid people over $14 million USDsince launching their bounty program in 2011.
Sign up for Flux and join 100,000 members of the Flux family