Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Sept 15 (Reuters) – Uber Technologies Inc ( UBER.N ) said on Thursday it was investigating a cyber security incident, after a report that its network was breached and the company had to shut down several internal communications and engineering systems. A hacker breached an employee’s workplace messaging app Slack and used it to send a message to Uber employees announcing that the company had suffered a data breach, according to a New York Times report Thursday that cited an Uber spokesperson. It appeared the hacker was later able to gain access to other internal systems by posting an explicit photo on an internal employee information page, the report added. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up “We are in contact with law enforcement and will post additional updates here as they become available,” Uber said in a tweet, without elaborating. The Slack system was taken offline Thursday afternoon by Uber after employees received the message from the hacker, according to the Times report, which cited two employees, who were not authorized to speak publicly. I am announcing that I am a hacker and Uber has suffered a data breach,” the message read and went on to list several internal databases it claimed had been breached, the report added. Aperson, claiming responsibility for the hack, told the newspaper that he had sent a text message to an Uber employee claiming to be a corporate IT person. The worker was persuaded to hand over a password that allowed the hacker to access Uber’s systems, the report said. Slack said in a statement to Reuters that the company is investigating the incident and that there is no indication of an inherent vulnerability in its platform. “Uber is a valued customer and we’re here to help them if they need us,” Slack, which is owned by Salesforce Inc., said in a statement. Uber employees were instructed not to use Slack, according to the report. Other internal systems, too, were inaccessible. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Reporting by Shubham Kalia and Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru. edited by Uttaresh.V, Rashmi Aich and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
