France next up behind Britain, Netherlands to pummel Uber with €400k fine over 2016 breach

Uber has been slapped with a €400,000 fine by the French data protection agency for the hack that exposed the data of 57 million users. The hack happened in 2016, but the firm hushed it up for more than 12 months, even paying the hackers $100,000 to keep quiet about the incident. The attackers stole login credentials for Uber …

[IneptAdept]

Stolen ?

Is it really stealing if they were left in a publicly accessible repo

Or is it that San Fran thought process that fuck we fucked up but its someone elses fault

[Ragarath]

Re: Stolen ?

Stolen is right IMO, taking something from somebody else without their permission.

It does not matter if it was in a publicly accessible place.

As an example your wallet is in a publicly accessible place most of the time when you are walking around. I bet you would still call it stealing if someone took it from you (probably not without a fight / chase if you noticed).

If it's not your's you have no right to take it unless given permission. It being visible to you does not give you that permission.

[phuzz]

Re: Stolen ?

Mind you, if you don't make at least a basic attempt to secure your property, any insurance you have will probably be void (eg, if you leave you car unlocked you won't be insured if someone nicks stuff out of it).

So if Uber have any insurance covering this sort of thing, it probably won't pay out for them given their lack of basic security precautions.

Such a shame :/

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Stolen ?

I have a vague idea that in England there is an offence of "stealing by finding". Makes me wary of trundling an obviously stolen and abandoned bicycle to the police station. Even if I file an online "fly tipping" report - it is usually reduced to just a frame before the council pick it up.

[phuzz]

Re: Stolen ?

It would rather depend on how you were caught. If a police car rocks up and the first thing you say is "I found this bike and I was taking it to the police station", and you're on a road leading to the police station, the outcome will be very different to if the police find it in your lockup hidden under a tarp.

UK law tends to take that the circumstances around a crime matter at least as much as the exact wording of the law. How else would a legal system cope with the grey areas that are life?

[GnuTzu]

Re: Stolen ?

In some places, it's illegal to leave your keys in the car. Such laws don't make leaving your keys in the car an advertisement for a free car. Anyone taking a car with the key left in the ignition is still a felon.

This is why blaming the victim is a fallacious defense against an accusation of felonious attack.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Stolen ?

"In some places, it's illegal to leave your keys in the car"

It was - and for all I know still is - an offence in NI to leave your car unlocked on account of the fact that it could be taken and used as a car bomb. It didn't make TDA any less of an offence.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Stolen ?

But they didn't "steal" them - they didn't deprive the owner of the use of them.

This is more like - you made a giant photocopy of the credit cards in your wallet and put it in your window with a big sign saying "my personal card info"

[MrMerrymaker]

Re: Stolen ?

I too see theft as deprivation BUT the OED lists two meanings and deprivation is one and the other is unauthorised taking.

[Woodnag]

Re: Stolen ?

Kindly cite one example where "it's illegal to leave your keys in the car". In Texas it is unlawful to leave the cars in the ignition, but that's it.

[big_D]

Re: Stolen ?

In Germany and in some nordic lands, it is illegal to leave the keys in the vehicle or to leave the vehicle unlocked - and cabrios are a curiosity, you can't leave them unlocked, but you can leave them with the roof down in some areas, as long as you lock it and take the keys with you.

[Anonymous Coward]

The fuckwittery is strong in this one....

Makes Capita look somewhat like a shining example of how to do things right....

What am I saying?!

This is basic security 101. Build your own git servers, you lazy arses. Don't hardcode creds into code. And don't do everything else mentioned in the article

[devTrail]

Thing are going well for Uber

In France they get a fine that given the amount of capital they recently raised is comparable to a slap on the wrist.

In the meanwhile in Italy the new friendly government has frozen the licences for car rental companies thus blocking a possible competitor, obviously the media blame the taxi drivers, but also their licences are frozen, only Uber will benefit from the increasing numbers of tourists who are pushing up the market.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Thing are going well for Uber

"In France they get a fine that given the amount of capital they recently raised is comparable to a slap on the wrist."

How many times do we have to point this out? 2016 was 2016; since this May things are very different.

[MJB7]

Re: How many times do we have to point this out?

For at least another couple of years (while the various breaches prior to May work their way through the system).

[DJV]

"breaches prior to May"

Do they call those "Camerons"?

[big_D]

Re: Thing are going well for Uber

And in Germany they are still under investigation, and banned in most places, for having drivers without professional driving licenses.

In Germany you cannot transport paying passengers (transporting for profit, the passengers can pay for their share of the fuel used, but nothing more) without a professional driving license, which has more rigorous conditions than a normal driving license - this is not a taxi license, you need the professional license in order to get a taxi license.

Without the professional license you cannot get commercial insurance to cover transporting paying passengers. Conveying them using a normal license and normal insurance means that your insurance is null and void. If you have an accident, you are personally responsible for all damage and injuries. If you are caught, your Lappen (license) is revoked and you will face charges, fines and possible imprisonment - depending on whether you were caught in a normal police control or at the scene of an accident and whether people were injured or killed.

[devTrail]

Re: Thing are going well for Uber

In Germany you cannot transport paying passengers (transporting for profit, the passengers can pay for their share of the fuel used, but nothing more) without a professional driving license, which has more rigorous conditions than a normal driving license - this is not a taxi license, you need the professional license in order to get a taxi license.

Of course. That's the European Driving Licence D and all the European countries have similar rules. In some countries there is also the taxi licence. Getting the D class driving licence requires special exams and health checks, but there's no limit to the number of licences issued. The taxi licence was meant to control the market fixing the maximum number of taxis on the roads, as usual it turned into the classic corporatist system ensuring high prices and mafia like attitude, that's the environment that favours companies like Uber when there are public officials willing to turn a blind eye in some occasions. The shame in Italy is that they worsened the situation creating a licence systems also for car rental companies who offer a car with a driver (with D class licence), basically they are legally restricting the number of professional drivers on the roads and turning a blind eye on the increasing number of low paid unskilled drivers. It's so absurd that you can't explain it unless you take into account the money flowing under the table.

[ratfox]

Peanuts

Last year, Uber has lost that much money every day. Twice over.

[Wellyboot]

Uber says 'multi-factor authentication isn't mandatory on GitHub'

I suppose GitHub doesn't have rules preventing you from mowing down people crossing the road either /sarc

[Anonymous Coward]

How many more breaches are covered up

These company's are doing information security with Ground unicorn horn and a magic wand.

Lots of places I have walked away from as the enviroments looks like they have already been hacked.

When you give them the advise to enable them to mange the risk or fix it, they ignore it.

So I just take the money as they are never going to learn.

Fines have to exceed what its going to cost to fix the problems or they will just keep paying the fines.

***** Plausable Deniability ****************