Uber plans to increase security staff to 100 people -FT

The popular ride-hailing service, Uber Technologies, is set to boost its security team as it tries to strengthen its defences against data breaches and hackers. It additionally appointed former federal cybercrime prosecutor Joe Sullivan as its chief safety officer in April after persevering with criticism of the way it dealt with its knowledge safety, the Monetary Occasions.

In February this year, an anonymous hacker managed to access the personal data of about 50,000 Uber drivers. The company has faced battles with taxi drivers, including high-profile clashes on the streets of Paris, and governments, such as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s failed attempt to limit the number of Uber drivers last month.

According to a report in the Financial Times, the company will bring its security team to more than 100 employees by the end of the year.

Sullivan is in charge of physical security and investigating driver incidents as well as cybersecurity.

Sullivan reportedly stated that Uber had already taken main steps to safe its knowledge earlier than he got here on board resembling enterprise assessments into who had entry to buyer knowledge and for what function the info could possibly be used. They will also protect staff attending court hearings about Uber’s legality and whether it is allowed to operate in certain countries. “The challenge is half the company needs access to customer data some of the time – it is not just customer support, it is marketing, engineers as they iterate, communications when they need to figure out what happened in an incident”, he said.