Uber data breach could have been avoided using blockchain

U.S. Justice Department begins investigating Uber data breach

—An accident that could have been avoided using blockchain

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into the Uber data breach that occurred in May 2014. According to Reuters, the U.S. Department of Justice will try to determine whether Uber's market competitor Lyft was involved in the breach.

In February of this year, Uber revealed that they had suffered a massive data breach, and the personal information of nearly 50,000 Uber drivers, including their names and license plate numbers, was illegally downloaded by an unauthorized person. Reuters reported that "Uber's investigation traced an Internet address that may be related to the breach back to Lyft's technical director, Chris Lambert . " Former federal prosecutor Miles Ehrlich , who is representing Lambert , said his client had nothing to do with the Uber data breach.

Since the Justice Department began investigating the incident, Lyft has issued a statement saying, " It has not been contacted by the U.S. Department of Justice and is not under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office or any other state or federal agency."

Justice Department spokesman Abraham Simmons told the media that he could neither confirm nor deny whether the investigation would continue, and so far no one has been charged with any crime.

This data breach is another example of how many companies could benefit from incorporating blockchain technology into their business models. Uber, which has been praised as a model for peer-to-peer technology and shareholding economy, ultimately operates under a centralized structure. Therefore, all of its data is stored on centralized servers or computers, which makes it easy for hackers to obtain drivers' personal information. If Uber used blockchain technology, or if we had a blockchain-based ownership alternative, there would not be a centralized point for hackers to exploit.

Even though Uber hasn’t taken full advantage of the benefits of decentralization, it still cares about its drivers. When it first informed the public about the hack, Uber said it would provide affected drivers with one year of Experian’s Protect My ID Alert, an identity theft prevention service.

Additionally, Uber reassured the public in a blog post:

     Uber takes the protection of personal information very seriously, and we apologize for any inconvenience this incident may have caused. Additionally, we filed a lawsuit today to gather information to identify and prosecute this unauthorized third party.