Uber to pay $148 million in settlment over 2016 data breach and cover-up

Uber has agreed to pay $148 million in a nationwide settlement agreement over its 2016 data breach and subsequent cover-up, state attorneys general announced Wednesday. The money will be dispersed across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Uber has also agreed to take specific steps to better secure its employees' data.

Last December, it came to light that hackers in 2016 stole data pertaining to 57 million Uber riders worldwide, as well data on more than 7 million drivers. That included data on about 600,000 drivers in the US. Instead of notifying impacted riders and drivers of the incident, Uber concealed the breach for more than a year and paid a hacker to keep it under wraps.

The data breach came to light just a few months after Dara Khosrowshahi stepped up as the new CEO of the embattled business.

Uber's failure to disclose the breach in a timely manner violated state laws. In a statement, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro called Uber's decision to conceal the breach "outrageous corporate misconduct."

"Today's settlement holds them accountable and requires real changes in their corporate behavior," Shapiro added.

In addition to the payout, Uber has agreed to take steps to change its corporate policies, including taking steps to protect any user data stored on third-party platforms, implementing strong password policies for employees, developing a strong overall data security policy for data collected about users, and implementing a corporate integrity program. Uber has also agreed to hire an outside party to regularly assess Uber's data security efforts.

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