Canada’s privacy commissioner confirms Uber is under investigation for security breach [Update]

Uber is officially under investigation by Canada’s privacy commissioner.

In an email to MobileSyrup, a representative for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) confirmed that the American ridesharing giant is currently under investigation for a cyberattack that affected millions of U.S. customers.

“Just a note to let you know that we have now opened a formal investigation,” reads an excerpt from the spokesperson’s email to MobileSyrup.

The OPC couldn’t provide any further details about the investigation “given confidentiality provisions under [the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act].”

Uber didn’t confirm how many — if any — Canadian users were affected by the breach. However, the company did confirm that roughly 2.7 million U.K. customers had been affected by the incident.

In response to MobileSyrup‘s request for comment, an Uber spokesperson said that the company will be working with the OPC during the investigation.

“The privacy of riders and drivers is of paramount importance at Uber and we will continue to work with the Privacy Commissioner on this matter,” reads an excerpt from an Uber spokesperson email to MobileSyrup.

Last month, Uber revealed that it had concealed, for over a year, a cyberattack that affected roughly 57 million U.S. customers.

The cyber attack took place in October 2016, and the hackers were able to access names, email addresses and phone number of approximately 50 million Uber passengers. An additional seven million drivers had their personal information accessed, including approximately 600,000 driver’s license numbers.

After Uber revealed the cybersecurity breach to the public, the company said that it had hired Matt Olsen, a former general counsel for the National Security Agency (NSA) and director of the National Counterterrorism Center, to “structure our security teams and processes going forward.”

Uber has also confirmed that approximately 815,000 Canadian drivers and passengers may have been affected by the October 2016 cybersecurity breach.

“This is an approximation rather than an accurate and definitive count, because sometimes the information we get through our app or our website that use to assign country code is not the same as the country where a person actually lives,” reads an excerpt from an Uber media release.

Update 12/12/2017: Uber has confirmed that approximately 815,000 Canadians may have been affected by the October 2016 hack.