Just today news organizations started reporting that the FBI began looking into Uber for running a program named "Hell" to identify Lyft drivers and to find pricing from their competition. The interesting thing about this about the same time as this started hitting the media, Jigsaw Security intelligence analyst began seeing information on Uber being posted to the dark web and on cleartext paste sites such as pastebin and pastie. The information shows list of users including contact information as well as if they are an employee or contractor.
Link to Original Content: Pastebin Example
Just as this occurred questions also started being asked about stock transactions on Uber as well as Equifax. What is interesting is that investigations on the stock trading activity of executives was brought into the spotlight by security researchers and Government investigators.
It seems that many issues are coming to a head at Uber such as the exit of the compliance officer as well as this investigation. The timing is very interesting in that the use of the "Hell" program more than likely violated US and International computing laws. Only time will tell if Uber goes the way of Equifax in how they handle a crisis. Equifax thinks we should all trust them to monitor our credit when they are responsible for one of the largest security breaches in recent history.
It goes to show that when profits exceed the companies interest in proper security, the consumer suffers. Uber has engaged in lawsuit after lawsuit at the state and local levels to circumvent regulations on commercial transportation and has been very successful. The thing that strikes us is that even when they have lost legal battles in the past they were eventually able to circumvent laws by agreeing to umbrella insurance policies to cover their operations at the local and state level. We have to wonder who will be held responsible for the violations of US Computer law and if anybody will be held to the standards of the individuals or if the company will find a clever way out of this mess.
As for Equifax, they seem to think that they can monitor the 143 million users accounts when they couldn't keep those 143 million user safe. That's like the fox guarding the hen house and we all know how that will turn out in the end.
One things for certain, your information is not safe with either of these organizations.
The Uber logo, Uber name and Equifax copyright was not violated as the use of the imagery is considered fair use. This being a new related article US copyright law cites specific exemptions for licensing when being used in a news story or article.