Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Uber Hackers May Have Been Russian (thetimes.co.uk)

Posted by msmash on from the tussle-continues dept.

Mark Bridge, reporting for The Times: Thousands of Uber customers are believed to have had their accounts hacked by Russians after users of the app (Editor's note: the link is paywalled; alternative source) reported being billed in roubles for taxi journeys they had not taken in Moscow and St Petersburg. More than 800 people in Britain and the United States have complained on Twitter that their accounts were taken over in the past year, The Times found, with the number of reports spiking in April and May. Experts said this number of Twitter reports suggested that the true figure would be much higher.

27 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. The evidence by phantomfive · · Score: 2
    Let's cut right to the evidence:

    Thousands of Uber customers are believed to have had their accounts hacked by Russians after users of the app reported being billed in roubles for taxi journeys they had not taken in Moscow and St Petersburg.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:The evidence by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      But... that could mean Idaho and Florida! :-P

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:The evidence by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Funny

      But... that could mean Idaho and Florida! :-P

      Idaho is known for their mean Potato Hackers.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re: The evidence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You're just ignorant of history, the talibans (plural) were a dominant force in the region AND STILL ARE. Your attempt to throw smokescreens for Moscow is noted.

    4. Re:The evidence by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Time of day? Exact 9 am to 5 pm gov working hours in some official time zone?
      Code litter that misdirects with the "expected" currency symbols?

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    5. Re: The evidence by negRo_slim · · Score: 1

      We do have plenty of Nigerians Princes here.

      --
      On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
  2. Blame Russia once again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And once again , lets point the finger to Russia. Why not... Who else are we going to blame

    1. Re:Blame Russia once again by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We should distinguish here between Russia (the Russian government) and people who live in Russia (Russian citizens, etc). The news media isn't always very clear on that distinction. It's a way to confuse people: "this IP address was in Russia! What does Putin know about it?"

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:Blame Russia once again by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Funny

      Putin not need Uber. Putin capture bear for ride to work.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    3. Re:Blame Russia once again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Eskimos. Quite frankly I'm really disappointed at how discriminating it is that the only successful hackers seem to be Russian. Russian hackers did this, Russian hackers did that! Well damn it! when will the l33t E5k1m0s base belong to us crew start getting some respect huh?

      captcha enraged

    4. Re:Blame Russia once again by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      Putin not need Uber. Putin take off shirt and attract Cossack pony for ride to work!

    5. Re:Blame Russia once again by rtb61 · · Score: 2

      You know it really gets a whole lot messier than that. When governments decided to play with contractors in computer douche baggery, those contractors started to, well, go direct. You could quite readily imagine US contractors stealing that data and partnering with Russia contractors to turn that data in profit via fraud. They don't give a fuck about anyone, whether their actions kill or not, they only serve themselves and greed and idiot governments empowered them whether US or Russian or Chinese, apparently the three biggest players. Triple agents in the computer douche baggery field would not be suprising and the EU and UK and now working to add to the fucking mess.

      Instead of securing computer system across the glove government fuckwit dead dog dick sucking morons have made it worse for the rest of us, by playing idiot games with corrupt contractors. Some of those attacks are designed to take out competitors, some are designed to cripple share price, some are for fraud and all of them are bad and largely the biggest fucking moron of all was the US government, well done, be proud of yet another mess you have created. Working to hack everyone, rather than secure everyone.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  3. Russian? by nuckfuts · · Score: 3, Funny

    Would not an "Uber Hacker" be German?

    1. Re:Russian? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      Only if the hacker is a Mensch.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  4. Let not who cracked Uber ... by Alain+Williams · · Score: 4, Insightful

    distract from the heinous fact that Uber hid that they had been cracked from their customers AND in contravention of all sorts of laws.

    1. Re: Let not who cracked Uber ... by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Just like every other large organization... including those whose security screw-ups we never hear about.

    2. Re: Let not who cracked Uber ... by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, actually, not everybody are criminals, and not every country is equally criminal.

      Nor do multiple wrongs add to a right.

      Nor does "somebody else might have done something else that was also a little bit bad" ever add up to an excuse. It just makes you look like a shill.

  5. My Toaster broke this morning. by hackus · · Score: 1, Troll

    I highly suspect it was Russians.

    I got this from a highly placed source in government who sold me a Dossier that told me so.

    Got it cheap to...like 15 Million.

    --
    Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
    1. Re:My Toaster broke this morning. by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      They are just probing the US kitchen networks for now. Wait until toasters get "smart" and fully networked.
      Imagine what a networked "smart" toaster with a printer like function could be altered to do to fun all American bread products.
      Just by changing the amount of heat over both sides of the toast.
      What was once a fun image outline on toast could be altered by hackers.
      A once cute golden brown image on the toast could get political.
      Americans could walk up to political messages crafted on both toasted sides of their toast.
      Looking down at their plate and been subjected to a propaganda message on their toast.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  6. Re:May have been liberals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Thank you for your attempts at humor, Alabama child molester apologists. Golf clap.

    -The liberals

  7. or.... by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

    Uber hackers sold your accounts to Russians.

  8. Re:given the nature of the app by greenwow · · Score: 1

    using algorithms to flag purchases from locations which would be outside typical spending parameters.

    And they false too damn often. I travel for work, and I've had my card disabled several times in the same month. The most humorous recent one was when I went to Walmart just a couple of miles from my home. My credit card company not only disabled my card, but they also closed my account. Their excuse was that since I had never used my card there in the over twenty years I had it, that it looked like fraud since most people either shop at Walmart or never shop there. I ended-up having to open a new account and get a new card. That also messed-up my credit.

    In Uber's case, imagine how mad customers would be if they're traveling internationally and don't speak the language then get stranded. I can see where that's a difficult balance to make.

  9. Uber Hackers may have been Russian? by najajomo · · Score: 2

    Uber Hackers may also have been shape shifting albino reptilian humanoids from a planet in the Draco constellation. ref :]

  10. Re:given the nature of the app by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    In Uber's case, imagine how mad customers would be if they're traveling internationally and don't speak the language then get stranded.

    FWIW you should never depend solely on Uber, especially traveling internationally. Always have a backup plan. Otherwise you'll end up with a $70 bill to go 10 minutes: and it will just be normal surge pricing as far as Uber is concerned.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  11. Iranian Hackers by Avaiam · · Score: 1

    Iran is helping Russian hackers to hack UBER. Iran is responsible for all these cyber attacks.

  12. Re: Stop blaming the Russians. by Brockmire · · Score: 1

    Ever get blamed for something you didn't do, but because you're being blamed anyway, you say "fuck it, I might as well do it". I think the Russians are operating like that.

  13. I wouldn't call this "fake news" by segin · · Score: 1

    As someone hijacked my Uber account not too long ago and set the email to a mail.ua address, set the phone number to a +7 (Russian) number, and the account location to Russia. I only got back in because they hadn't managed to yet unlink from my Facebook account (so I still had a way in to stop them.)