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Cyber Attack Breaches Data of 14 Million Careem Users Worldwide

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Cyber Attack Breaches Data of 14 Million Careem Users Worldwide
written by
Sherif Khairy

Remember the time when Internet was a new thing and everyone had their own mixture of fears and excitement? Remember when your friends or parents warned you against cyber dangers and told you to never put your personal data or credit card info online? Well, they may have had a point.

About a month ago, Facebook was brought into the limelight for all the wrong seasons as the data of over 80 million users was leaked. Today, we talk about a different data leakage that happened right here in Egypt, as well as other countries, including Pakistan and Turkey.

The Incident

Yesterday, international ride-hailing app, Careem, announced on their Facebook page that there was a breach in their Egyptian servers in January this year. On their blog, Careem outlined the details they have of the event. The breach happened on the 14th of January, and the online criminals, as they labelled them, were able to access customer and captain (drivers) account data available at that time. This means that customers or captains signing up after that date were unaffected by this breach.

The Data Leaked

Careem states that external cybersecurity experts got involved in order to investigate the breach and comprehensively understand what happened. They have confirmed that personal data such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, and trip data have been accessed. Yet, as of this moment, there is no evidence that any passwords or credit card information have been compromised, as those have a higher level of security.

While they have not mentioned the exact date at which this incident was discovered, they explained that their official statement was delayed due to the amount of time it takes to complete a thorough investigation. They wanted to have all the information before going public.

The Aftermath

Careem claim to have taken a number of security measures, and to have updated their security protocols and encryption system to keep up with the development in online criminal methods and tactics. They state that they are working with law enforcement agencies and cybersecurity experts to identify the online criminals and ensure that such an incident does not reoccur. Also, they maintain that they are still operational, and that this breach does not affect their activity.

Customers and captains are advised to comply with a few security procedures to ensure the safety of their data. These include changing your Careem password and other similar passwords, to remain cautious of any communications that ask for personal information or password entry, and to not click on any external suspicious links. While Careem assure that credit card information is safe, they advise you to monitor your bank account activity for any suspicious withdrawals.

Cybercrimes are widespread in today’s world, and this is in no way an attempt to ruin the reputation of Careem as a company that has succeeded in its time in Egypt. We are only assisting in promoting news that benefits Careem users as part of the Cairenes and Egyptians that we consider our primary audience

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