Uber says US drivers’ license data stolen in data breach

Uber has informed several thousand drivers that their personal and driver’s license data was compromised in a data breach that occurred in October. This disclosure comes in notices filed with various U.S. attorneys general, including those from California. According to Uber, it was alerted on October 9 by its tech provider, Fireworks AI, that hackers breached its systems and stole internal credentials. These credentials were then used to gain access to Uber’s data.

It is reported that Fireworks AI, a platform enabling developers to utilize open AI models, experienced its own data breach last month. This breach resulted in the theft of customer data, which included billing information and some proprietary AI datasets. Notion, an online productivity startup, also reported that its data was among those taken during the Fireworks hack.

Uber has not disclosed the exact number of customers affected by the breach nor how many drivers have been notified about this incident. Fireworks AI has not provided any information regarding the incident.

The stolen data includes the driver’s licenses of 2,567 individuals in Massachusetts, 3,430 people across South Carolina, and 1,873 residents of Rhode Island. An Illinois filing suggests that some state residents also had their driver’s license information stolen, but the exact number remains undisclosed. Uber has notified drivers residing in California, though the specific count remains unknown and is anticipated to increase as additional notifications are received.

Fireworks AI has attributed the breach to a financially motivated cybercriminal group. This group aims to sell stolen tokens for accessing large language models, or LLMs. However, no specific cybercriminal group has claimed responsibility for the data theft. This marks Uber’s second known data breach in 2023. Earlier this year, the company reported another security incident involving its Uber Freight truck shipping unit, where an extortion gang admitted to stealing data.