Uber said on Thursday it is investigating a possible breach of its network after a hacker gained access on Thursday to the company’s internal system, forcing it to shut several internal communications and engineering systems.
A hacker compromised an employee’s account on 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 on Thursday that cited an Uber spokesperson.
The alleged hacker sent images of Uber’s internal systems, including email, cloud storage and code repositories, to the Times and shared information with cybersecurity researchers.
The hacker, who said he was 18 years old, claimed that he broke into Uber because of its weak security and used his access to its Slack messaging service to call for higher pay for Uber drivers.
“We are in touch with law enforcement and will post additional updates here as they become available,” Uber said in a tweet, without providing further details.
