A hacker who appeared to compromise Uber on Thursday told The New York Times that he is only 18 years old.
The person, whose identity remains unknown but who claimed to be behind the hack, told the publication that he had been developing his cybersecurity skills for several years. He sent The Times images that showed access to lists of Uber emails, cloud storage information, and code.
The unnamed man said that he had accessed Uber's systems by sending a text message claiming to be a corporate information technology person to an Uber worker, whom he persuaded to send a password.
"They pretty much have full access to Uber," Sam Curry, a security engineer at Yuga Labs who had communicated with the apparent hacker, told The Times, speaking about the hacker.
"This is a total compromise, from what it looks like."
Curry tweeted that the attacker "is claiming to have completely compromised Uber" and had shared screenshots showing that the person had full admin access on Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.
The Times and Bloomberg both reported on Thursday that Uber employees got a Slack message saying "I am a hacker." The apparent hacker also listed multiple internal databases that they claimed to have accessed, The Times reported.
An Uber spokesperson told The Times that the hacker had gotten access to a worker's Slack account and used it to send the message.
The ride-hailing company told Insider it was responding to a "cybersecurity incident" and was in touch with law enforcement. The Times and Bloomberg reported that Uber had taken Slack offline.
The Times reported that the hacker had also posted an explicit photo on an internal staff page.
Curry tweeted a message he'd received from an Uber employee, which said: "Anytime I request a website, I am taken to a REDACTED page with a pornographic image and the message 'Fuck you wankers.'"
"It seems like maybe they're this kid who got into Uber and doesn't know what to do with it, and is having the time of his life," Curry told The Times.
Do you work for Uber? Got a story about the hack? Email this reporter at gdean@insider.com.
