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Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People

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Re: Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People

#161
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Just pay the toll especially when the cost of doing the right thing is higher. i mean look at HSBC - laundered trillions of dollars of mega-organized-crime money. for a decade. 400m dollar fine probably isnt even .01% of what they made off that endeavor

HSBC did not make trillions from those transactions and they were fined $1.9bn in 2012.

Did you ask any families with a family member killed by a cartel if a fine seemed reasonable?

Re: Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People

#162
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised Uber doesn't have their engineers set up 2FA for GitHub. Super simple to implement and require organization-wide[1] and would have prevented this. Then again, not storing credentials in GitHub would also have prevented this . . . [1] https://help.github.com/articles/requiring-two-factor-authen...

This is so gob-smackingly uncommon I started asking "do you require 2fa for your github accounts" as part of my interview questions when I was looking for jobs (i.e. I'd ask my interviewers). I don't know how to feel knowing that there is even one software-focused company out there that doesn't enforce 2fa on its github accounts. Like... how?! Why?!

To use 2fa on github you need a mobile phone.

Do you give every enployee a mobile phone, or do you ask your employees to use their own personal phones?

Asking them to use their personal phones seems like a very bad solution. Many software companies do not routinely give developers mobile phones...

Re: Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People

#163
post #158
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall a story (that I'll probably recount incorrectly) about a daycare business deciding that too many parents were arriving late to pick up their children (meaning that staff had to stay late with the kids), so they instituted a fine for late pickups. The result was that more parents were late. The reason being that the parents effectively considered the fine a "late pickup fee", and one they were more than willi…

The way you fix this is by making each 5m late cost 2 gallon of milk. If you are late for 15m that's 6 gallons of milk, an operational burden has been passed to the late parent. It's embarrassing to bring in 6 gallons of milk, an inconvenience to buy and deliver it, and an effective deterrent.

> If the parents were fined a day's daycare fee for being ten minutes late you can bet their attitude would change.

I think upping the pain works better. What's a daycare going to do with so many gallons of milk?

Re: Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People

#164
post #18
post #10

"In January 2016, the New York attorney general fined Uber $20,000 for failing to promptly disclose an earlier data breach in 2014." Because you know...20k really really hurts for a company like Uber.

This would have been interesting if GDPR was applied. https://www.gdpr.associates/data-breach-penalties/ "There will be two levels of fines based on the GDPR. The first is up to €10 million or 2% of the company’s global annual turnover of the previous financial year, whichever is higher. The second is up to €20 million or 4% of the company’s global annual turnover of the previous financial year, whichever is higher.…

> The first is up to €10 million or 2% of the company’s global annual turnover of the previous financial year, whichever is higher.

Why do big firms get off easier than the smaller firms?

Re: Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People

#165
post #158
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall a story (that I'll probably recount incorrectly) about a daycare business deciding that too many parents were arriving late to pick up their children (meaning that staff had to stay late with the kids), so they instituted a fine for late pickups. The result was that more parents were late. The reason being that the parents effectively considered the fine a "late pickup fee", and one they were more than willi…

The way you fix this is by making each 5m late cost 2 gallon of milk. If you are late for 15m that's 6 gallons of milk, an operational burden has been passed to the late parent. It's embarrassing to bring in 6 gallons of milk, an inconvenience to buy and deliver it, and an effective deterrent.

You're kidding, right?

Re: Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People

#166
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you believe this kind of thing is simply unavoidable? I wonder if this could've been avoided by simply making it impossible to access data without being connected to a VPN in addition to having some sort of physical device connected to your computer.

It's entirely avoidable. Just don't commit secrets to source control. Ever.

This is good advice, but even if you don't, it's possible that someone else on your team will.

Re: Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People

#167
post #158
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall a story (that I'll probably recount incorrectly) about a daycare business deciding that too many parents were arriving late to pick up their children (meaning that staff had to stay late with the kids), so they instituted a fine for late pickups. The result was that more parents were late. The reason being that the parents effectively considered the fine a "late pickup fee", and one they were more than willi…

The way you fix this is by making each 5m late cost 2 gallon of milk. If you are late for 15m that's 6 gallons of milk, an operational burden has been passed to the late parent. It's embarrassing to bring in 6 gallons of milk, an inconvenience to buy and deliver it, and an effective deterrent.

Or draw a different conclusion from the situation: parents are clearly willing to pay a premium for the daycare to stay open later. So raise the price for that service high enough that it's worthwhile for the daycare (including hiring additional staff as needed or paying overtime).

Re: Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People

#168
post #10

"In January 2016, the New York attorney general fined Uber $20,000 for failing to promptly disclose an earlier data breach in 2014." Because you know...20k really really hurts for a company like Uber.

What? Uber acted in an unethical manner? Seriously, is anyone surprised? I kinda hope (but not really) that they get hacked again in June 2018 and play the same trick.. us in the EU will have a party on Uber's corpse over GDPR.

Re: Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People

#169
post #151
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why bother? I just deleted the app and forgot about it. Is there something I should know?

IIRC you can't remove all payment methods from the app, so just deleting the app will leave your credit card information in their hands. Also all your previous ride data will still be on their servers. Both of these things could be lost in a data breach, and presumably account deletion deletes this data.

Deleting your account at Uber doesn't delete ride info[0]

In a lot of cases companies still leave behind an email stub to prevent users signing up over and over again for signup deals

The only way to ensure your data is safe is to never hand it over in the first place - signup with a fake name, prepaid card, etc.

[0] https://help.uber.com/h/24010fe7-7a67-4ee5-9938-c734000b144a

Re: Uber Paid Hackers to Delete Stolen Data on 57M People

#170
Man, I don't know if Uber is evil or if most tech companies are evil and Uber just doesn't drop the kind of money on PR strategery that an evil company need to drop in order to seem normal. But either way, holy cow does that company come off as toxic. They've completely revolutionized the drive-for-hire industry and all anyone ever hears about it what a D-bag their CEO is or how toxic and mysogonist their work environment is or how hard they work to spy on their employees and customers (to the point that the CEO of Apple had to have a Come To Jesus talk with the CEO of Uber) or how their employees feel like they are getting screwed or, now, how they are concealing massive data breaches. It's like how I imagine Uber would be if it was run by Magneto instead of Tony Stark.
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