Uber has a special system to allow staff at its San Francisco HQ to remotely lock down computers at its offices around the world if they were raided by authorities, it has been claimed.
The system was able to change passwords, remotely log out workers from Uber’s servers and even switch off machine so data could not be collected.
According to Bloomberg, the system was known as Ripley, after the flame throwing hero in the Alien movies, and was used over two dozen times.
The system was able to change passwords, remotely log out workers from Uber’s servers and even switch off machine so data could not be collected.
According to Bloomberg, ‘The Uber HQ team overseeing Ripley could remotely change passwords and otherwise lock up data on company-owned smartphones, laptops, and desktops as well as shut down the devices.’
It says the system was used in May 2015 when 10 investigators for the Quebec tax authority burst into Uber Technologies Inc’s office in Montreal.
‘Managers on-site knew what to do, say people with knowledge of the event.’ Bloomberg says.
Staff then paged a number that alerted specially trained staff at company headquarters in San Francisco.
When the call came in, staffers quickly remotely logged off every computer in the Montreal office, making it practically impossible for the authorities to retrieve the company records they’d obtained a warrant to collect.
The investigators left without any evidence
In December 2016, an ex-Uber security employee, Ward Spangenberg, made a sworn statement saying he was part of an ‘incident response team’ that helped remotely erase data when Revenu Québec raided the company’s Montreal offices in 2015.
Uber said ‘Like every company with offices around the world, we have security procedures in place to protect corporate and customer data.
‘When it comes to government investigations, it’s our policy to cooperate with all valid searches and requests for data.
Bloomberg says later versions of the system gave the company the ability to selectively provide information to government agencies that searched its foreign offices.
It also mentions another system, called uLocker, which it says was contemplated for times when Uber wanted to be ‘less transparent’.
Sigourney Weaver as Warrant Officer Ripley in the hit film Alien 3 – the inspiration for Uber’s latest software tool.
A prototype version of the software could apparently present a dummy version of a typical login screen to police or other unwanted eyes – although it is believed the software was never used.
Last year the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced it is probing to see if Uber used software to illegally interfere with its competitors, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The investigation is focusing on an Uber program, internally known as ‘Hell,’ that could track drivers working for rival service Lyft Inc, the WSJ said, citing people familiar with the investigation.
Under the program, which was discontinued last year, Uber created fake Lyft customer accounts to seek rides, allowing it to track nearby Lyft drivers and ride prices, the Journal said.
The company has also been accused of using a secret tool to deceive the authorities in markets where its service faced resistance by law enforcement or was banned, the New York Times reported last year.
An Uber tool called Greyball used data collected from the Uber app and other methods to find and circumvent officials, the NYT reported on Friday.
The service was able to show them a fake app populated with ‘ghost’ cars and cancel their rides.