The top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee is urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Uber after the company finally admitted this week that a massive breach of customer data occurred in 2016.
“Uber’s failures to protect consumer information and to disclose the breach for more than a year left 57 million riders and drivers at an increased risk,” Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said in a statement Wednesday. “The security breach shows a sloppy approach by the company to protecting consumer data, and demonstrates a severe breach of trust with the public, its own employees and regulators who it failed to notify in a timely manner.”
Uber reportedly paid hackers $100,000 to keep a massive breach under wraps and delete data obtained through the cyberattack, which occurred in October 2016.
Roughly 57 million users — 50 million riders and 7 million drivers — had their personal information comprised during the breach, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, and some drivers license numbers.
In addition to calling on the FTC to investigate the breach and Uber’s “outrageous delay in disclosing” the hack, Pallone said company representatives need to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“If Uber did indeed secretly pay-off the hackers to keep the breach quiet, then a possible cover up of the incident is problematic and must be investigated,” Pallone said.
