Uber alerts thousands of drivers after vendor breach exposes license data
The number of affected drivers is expected to rise as more state notifications are filed, and Uber has not said how many customers were hit.
Uber is alerting thousands of its drivers that their personal details and driver's license data were taken in an October breach that originated at a third-party vendor rather than at Uber itself. Uber says it learned of the intrusion on October 9 from the vendor, which had been compromised after attackers obtained internal credentials and used them to reach Uber's records. Filings with several US state attorneys general list 2,567 affected people in Massachusetts, 3,430 in South Carolina and 1,873 in Rhode Island, while Illinois and California counts are still outstanding. The vendor, Fireworks AI, a provider of developer access to open AI models, had earlier disclosed its own breach that also exposed customer billing data and private AI datasets, and the online workspace company Notion has confirmed its data was hit in the same incident. The total number of affected drivers is expected to grow as further notifications come in, and this is Uber's second data breach this year after an extortion group claimed a incident at its Uber Freight unit.
Why it matters
The breach reached Uber through a third-party vendor, Fireworks AI, after attackers stole internal credentials, so the exposure is tied to outside access rather than a flaw Uber disclosed itself. Drivers whose license information was taken now face a higher risk of identity misuse, and their total count is still unknown. The incident is also Uber's second known data breach this year, following an extortion gang's claim against its Uber Freight unit, and it reached other companies such as Notion through the same vendor.
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