Los Angeles city attorney sues Uber over data breach

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer has filed a lawsuit against Uber after the ride-sharing company admittedly failed to disclose a large-scale data breach in 2016.

Feuer made the announcement Monday.

"We allege Uber violated California law, and public trust, when it hid this massive data breach," Feuer said. "If any company should know better, it's Uber, which reached a previous settlement after allegedly failing to provide timely notice to its users about an earlier security breach."

Last month Uber announced it had covered up the hacking attack in which the personal information of more than 57 million customers and drivers was stolen.

"Uber and other companies holding vast amounts of private data need to safeguard it-and immediately come clean if the information is compromised," Feuer said Monday.

The company said it paid the hackers $100,000 to destroy the stolen information.

In a statement, an Uber spokesperson said, "We take this matter very seriously and we are happy to answer any questions regulators may have. We are committed to changing the way we do business, putting integrity at the core of every decision we make, and working hard to re-gain the trust of consumers."