Uber reportedly paid hackers $100,000 to cover up a cyberattack that exposed the personal data of 57 million people

• Becky Peterson
 

• 19h
• 10,245

Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. Steve Jennings/Getty Images

Uber paid hackers $100,000 to cover up a 2016 cyberattack that exposed the personal data of 57 million people, including both riders and drivers, Bloomberg's Eric Newcomer reported Tuesday.

The data breach, which occurred in October 2016, was not made public until Tuesday when Uber quietly published a blog post about the incident. But Uber's former CEO Travis Kalanick was made aware of the breach just a month after it occurred.

"None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it," Dara Khosrowshahi, who joined Uber as CEO in September, wrote in the post. "We are changing the way we do business, putting integrity at the core of every decision we make and working hard to earn the trust of our customers."

Among the info stolen was trove of data including the names, emails, and phone numbers for 50 million riders globally, as well as the personal information of 7 million drivers. This included US driver's license numbers, but no Social Security numbers, according to Uber.

Two of the people responsible for Uber's handling of the breach are no longer with the company as a result of the findings, Khosrowshahi wrote in the post.

One of them is Joe Sullivan, Uber's chief security officer, who was asked by Khosrowshahi to resign, according to Bloomberg. Sullivan had previously worked at Facebook.

One of Sullivan's direct reports, a lawyer named Craig Clark, was fired, according to the report.

In the hours since Bloomberg first published its report, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has opened up an investigation into how Uber handled the hack, Tech Crunch reports. 

This news comes at the end of a rocky year for the company that included several high-level deparatures following reports that the company culture was toxic and allegations of sexism. Kalanick, who cofounded the company in 2009, resigned as CEO in June, though the strife continued as Uber's board of directors battled over who would come in to replace him.

Read Bloomberg's full report on the 2016 Uber hack here.

NOW WATCH: I've been an iPhone user for 10 years — here's what happened when I switched to the Google Pixel 2 for a week

More: Uber Hack cyber attack Travis Kalanick

Trump says the AT&T-Time Warner deal is 'not good for the country'

• Joe Ciolli
 

• 20h
• 3,069
 

Reuters / Carlo Allegri

T AT&T

 34.86 0.53 (+1.50 %)

DisclaimerGet real-time T charts here »

TWX Time Warner

 90.15 0.60 (+0.70 %)

DisclaimerGet real-time TWX charts here »

• President Donald Trump told White House reporters on Tuesday that AT&T's proposed acquisition of Time Warner is "not good for the country."
• The comments echo those made by Trump on the campaign trail in October 2016.
• Trump has been a staunch opponent of the deal for over a year, and has repeatedly voiced his displeasure with CNN, which is owned by Time Warner.

---

The hits keep coming for AT&T's proposed acquisition of Time Warner.

President Donald Trump spoke to reporters on the White House lawn on Tuesday afternoon, saying, "Personally, I always felt that was a deal that's not good for the country. He also said, "I'm not going to get involved — it's litigation."

His comments come one day after the US Department of Justice sued to block AT&T's $84.5 billion takeover of Time Warner.

The statements echo comments Trump made on the campaign trail back in October 2016, when he said a successful deal would result in "too much concentration of power in the hands of too few," and also said "deals like this destroy democracy."

Trump's Justice Department — most notably Makan Delrahim, the antitrust chief he nominated — would seem to agree. In a complaint filed on Monday, the regulatory body focused on what it sees as potentially anti-competitive behavior that could result from a completed deal. AT&T already owns DirecTV, which is mentioned throughout the complaint as a particular cause for concern.

The news of the antitrust lawsuit followed recent reports that the Justice Department demanded AT&T and Time Warner sell Turner Broadcasting, the group of channels that includes CNN, to receive approval for the deal. The entire ordeal comes amid Trump's repeated insistence that CNN is "fake news."

Regulatory concerns about the merger have ramped up since Delrahim started in his new role. After assuming duties in September, he pushed for the divestiture of either Turner Broadcasting or DirecTV during negotiations, according to a Bloomberg report.

Trump's concerns echo those expressed by many critics of the deal who think that too much consolidation in the media and telecom industries is ultimately bad for both. Still, antitrust experts have said that on a strictly legal basis, fighting the deal might be difficult for the DOJ.

Whether the deal can proceed will be up to a federal judge. It's also possible the two sides will negotiate a settlement that would allow it to continue.

AT&T's stock slid 0.9% for Tuesday's session, while Time Warner shares were little changed.

Markets Insider

SEE ALSO: AT&T will face an antitrust lawsuit over its $84.5 billion Time Warner deal

NOW WATCH: A senior investment officer at a $695 billion firm breaks down tax reform

More: CNN at&t Time Warner doj 

AT&T will face an antitrust lawsuit over its $84.5 billion Time Warner deal

• Joe Ciolli
 

• 23h
• 6,499

Randall Stephenson, the chief of AT&T. AP

• The US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit seeking to block AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner.
• The news of the lawsuit follows reports that the department demanded AT&T and Time Warner sell Turner Broadcasting, which includes CNN.

---

AT&T's rocky quest to complete its acquisition of Time Warner just hit another speed bump.

The US Department of Justice sued to block the company's $84.5 billion takeover of Time Warner.

"This merger would greatly harm American consumers. It would mean higher monthly television bills and fewer of the new, emerging innovative options that consumers are beginning to enjoy," Makan Delrahim, the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said announcing the suit.

In the complaint, the Justice Department focused on what it sees as potentially anti-competitive behavior that could result from a completed deal. AT&T already owns DirecTV, which is mentioned throughout the complaint as a particular cause for concern. The DOJ said:

"Were this merger allowed to proceed, the newly combined firm likely would ... use its control of Time Warner’s popular programming as a weapon to harm competition.

"AT&T/DirecTV would hinder its rivals by forcing them to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more per year for Time Warner’s networks, and it would use its increased power to slow the industry’s transition to new and exciting video distribution models that provide greater choice for consumers. The proposed merger would result in fewer innovative offerings and higher bills for American families."

The news of the antitrust lawsuit follows reports that the Justice Department demanded AT&T and Time Warner sell Turner Broadcasting, the group of channels that includes CNN, to receive approval for the deal.

AT&T's chief executive, Randall Stephenson, has countered those reports, saying he'd never been under pressure from the Justice Department to sell CNN.

In a statement to multiple publications, David R. McAtee II, AT&T's general counsel, said:

"Today's DOJ lawsuit is a radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent. Vertical mergers like this one are routinely approved because they benefit consumers without removing any competitor from the market. We see no legitimate reason for our merger to be treated differently ...

"Fortunately, the Department of Justice doesn't have the final say in this matter. Rather, it bears the burden of proving to the U.S. District Court that the transaction violates the law. We are confident that the Court will reject the Government's claims and permit this merger under longstanding legal precedent."

Regulatory concerns about the deal have ramped up since Delrahim took over in September as the nation's antitrust chief. A Trump nominee, he pushed for the divestiture of either Turner Broadcasting or DirecTV during negotiations, according to the Bloomberg report.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly called CNN "fake news," and he criticized the proposed acquisition near the end of his presidential campaign, saying that "deals like this destroy democracy."

"As an example of the power structure I'm fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few," Trump said in a speech on October 22, 2016.

Trump's concerns echo those expressed by many critics of the deal who think that too much consolidation in the media and telecom industries is ultimately bad for both. Still, antitrust experts have said that on a strictly legal basis, fighting the deal might be difficult for the DOJ.

Whether the deal can proceed will be up to a federal judge. It's also possible that the two sides will negotiate a settlement that would allow it to continue.

AT&T's stock slid on the news but still traded 0.4% higher on Monday afternoon, while Time Warner shares slipped 1.1% on the day.

Markets Insider

SEE ALSO: AT&T has 'no intention' of selling CNN, no matter what Trump's DOJ says

NOW WATCH: Tesla's biggest problem is one nobody saw coming

00:00

01:31

More: CNN at&t Time Warner doj