Photo: Screenshot from Uber Website
Teens are not what they used to be when I was growing up. Instead of playing video games all day and sprouting roots like a couch potato, apparently, nowadays they’re hacking left and right. One such 18-year-old claims he was the one behind the recent Uber hack. Not only that, but he also claims to have leaked the 90 GTA 6 videos online.
Uber is currently investigating its digital strengths and weaknesses after it was hacked last Thursday. The 18-year-old claiming to have orchestrated the entire thing boasted about having obtained internal images from Uber regarding email, cloud services, and various codes. He sent these to various cybersecurity researchers and also to The New York Times to prove his claims were true.
People from inside the company were given instructions not to use Slack, an internal communication software, while other systems were simply not functioning. Soon after these events, the employees got a message saying, “I announce I am a hacker and Uber has suffered a data breach.”
Normally when people think of hacking, they imagine a Mr. Robot scenario with some doomsday clock ticking, while a mysterious person in a hoodie is rapidly typing at a computer, in a basement with green coding lights reflecting in his eyes. While that makes for a good movie scene, this wasn’t the case here.
The person responsible simply managed to dupe some poor employee to give him their password. This is called social engineering. It’s when someone from outside a corporate entity obtains employee information under false pretenses. Pair that with advanced computer knowledge and you have yourself an old-fashion hack.
No fancy password decryption, no “slowing down the hack from a computer mainframe” while setting up “fake backdoor firewalls,” or other Hollywood technical mumbo-jumbo. In real life, it’s just as boring as that.
There was no reason given for the hack other than the company having weak security. But judging from past occurrences like this, coupled with the fact that he intentionally called it out to the press and other media outlets, this was most likely his way of handing in his resume.
He might end up working for Uber or some other interested entity. At the end of the day, Uber was offering a cash reward a few years ago for doing just that.
People from inside the company were given instructions not to use Slack, an internal communication software, while other systems were simply not functioning. Soon after these events, the employees got a message saying, “I announce I am a hacker and Uber has suffered a data breach.”
Normally when people think of hacking, they imagine a Mr. Robot scenario with some doomsday clock ticking, while a mysterious person in a hoodie is rapidly typing at a computer, in a basement with green coding lights reflecting in his eyes. While that makes for a good movie scene, this wasn’t the case here.
The person responsible simply managed to dupe some poor employee to give him their password. This is called social engineering. It’s when someone from outside a corporate entity obtains employee information under false pretenses. Pair that with advanced computer knowledge and you have yourself an old-fashion hack.
No fancy password decryption, no “slowing down the hack from a computer mainframe” while setting up “fake backdoor firewalls,” or other Hollywood technical mumbo-jumbo. In real life, it’s just as boring as that.
There was no reason given for the hack other than the company having weak security. But judging from past occurrences like this, coupled with the fact that he intentionally called it out to the press and other media outlets, this was most likely his way of handing in his resume.
He might end up working for Uber or some other interested entity. At the end of the day, Uber was offering a cash reward a few years ago for doing just that.
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