Online car-hailing giant Uber said its computer system had been hacked, and the company had alerted the relevant authorities. The company has reportedly shut down multiple internal systems in an attempt to determine the extent of the damage to its network.
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The ride-hailing company said in a tweet that it was “responding to a cybersecurity incident.” The hacker posted a message on Slack, according to two people familiar with the matter. The two people familiar with the matter requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The sources reported on Thursday, citing an Uber spokesman, that a hacker compromised an employee’s workplace messaging app Slack and used it to send messages to Uber employees announcing the company had suffered a data breach.
According to reports, Uber employees received a message Thursday afternoon local time that read, “I announce that I am a hacker and that Uber has suffered a data breach.” The other party also listed several internal databases that they claimed had been compromised. Uber then shut down its Slack messaging system, as well as some engineering systems.
Notably, the hackers later appeared to be able to gain access to other internal systems, posting an explicit photo on the employee’s internal information page. A person who claimed responsibility for the hack told sources that he sent a text message to an Uber employee, claiming to be the company’s IT staff.
The employee was persuaded to hand over a password that gave hackers access to Uber’s internal systems, the report said. Slack said in a statement to Reuters that the company was investigating the incident and that there was no evidence that its platform had inherent vulnerabilities.
“Uber is a valuable customer, and if they need us, we’re here to help them,” Slack, which is owned by Salesforce, said in a statement.
