What You Need to Know About Keeping Your Uber Business Account Safe

This blog was originally published by TokenEx here.

Written by Valerie Hare, TokenEx.

As a leading rideshare app, Uber is recognized worldwide. Today, this rideshare platform has 93 million riders and 3.5 million drivers. If your business uses Uber for work-related trips, food deliveries, or bicycle rentals, it’s important to take the steps to keep your business account safe. This will help reduce the risks of cyberattacks, which harm your company’s success, reputation, and profits. Let’s take a closer look at the tips for keeping your Uber business account safe and some security solutions to achieve this.

An Overview of Uber

In 2009, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp established what has become the top rideshare app used by millions of global citizens. Uber allows drivers and riders to connect for various services, including rides, food deliveries, bike rentals, and more. Unlike traditional taxi services, this San Francisco-based rideshare platform makes it easy to request and cancel rides in real-time, choose a driver, pay digitally in the app, and know how long it will take to be picked up and dropped off. Furthermore, riders and drivers can also rate each other, which encourages the app’s users to act their best. Indeed, this flexibility and freedom is usually not possible with most taxi companies.

For those that do not have a phone with internet access, it will not be possible to use the app to request services. In this case, a taxi service that only requires a phone call may be the better choice. Additionally, people can hail taxis from the streets, which is not allowed for Uber users.

Sensitive Data

Like any online account that stores sensitive data, businesses must do their due diligence to protect and secure this information from harm. This includes the following types of data:

• Names
• Bank account numbers
• Birthdates
• Credit card numbers
• Email addresses
• GPS locations
• Mailing addresses
• Phone numbers
• GPS location and more

How Uber Protects Your User Data

Since Uber handles payments, this app takes various measures to protect payment data. For example, Uber encrypts users’ credit card details that are added to the app. Only the last four digits and expiration date of the card are visible. Indeed, this automatic security solution is designed to prevent cybercriminals from hacking into a business account and stealing their payment information on file.

Additionally, Uber’s security teams and systems frequently monitor for suspicious account activity. If any suspicious activity is found, Uber will contact the user regarding their account. The team will specify the possible fraudulent behavior and then address the issue. Depending on the activity, repeat fraudulent activity can lead to permanent deletion of an account (usually up to 2 warnings). As you can see, Uber takes data protection seriously.

Tips to Keep Your Uber Business Account Safe

Aside from Uber, what can you do to protect your business Uber account? We are glad you asked! Keep reading for just a few tips to protect your account and most importantly, your business. As an added bonus, these tips are applicable to any online account.

Use Strong Passwords

A security best practice is to create strong, unique passwords for online accounts. If one account is compromised, it will be less likely that other accounts are affected because the same password isn’t used more than once. A strong password uses a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers, does not contain any publicly available information, and is at least 10 characters in length.

Keep Passwords Private

Did you know that reputable businesses will never ask via email or text for your password or verification codes? Indeed, another best practice is to keep passwords private and limit this information to those that truly need it, such as an administrator user for your business account. This tip will make it easier to keep track of who uses and manages the account, as well as to identify possible unauthorized logins.

Additionally, consider using a free password manager to store your login credentials. This is a safer alternative to storing passwords on paper or an external flash drive, which can be easily stolen. It’s also a good idea to avoid accessing your account via a public Wi-Fi network, which can make it easy for cybercriminals to hijack your credentials.

Be Aware of Phishing Scams

Did you know that 75 percent of companies globally experienced a phishing attack in 2020? Email is the most common form of phishing, as this is an easy way for hackers to gain login credentials. Phishing refers to an attempt to gain access to personal information, such as passwords or card details. Most phishing scams are sent via email or text messages, which contain a link or attachment. If users click on the link or attachment, they will be sent to a fake page. The users will be prompted to enter their login or card information, which is how hackers break into accounts and steal, sell, or expose users’ data. Therefore, it’s crucial that you are aware of these common scams, never click on messages from unknown sources, and only enter your credentials from the official website URL or app. Further, if you are still unsure, contact Uber’s customer support team directly for confirmation about a possible scam.

Report Suspicious Activity Immediately

If you receive suspicious activity claiming to be from Uber, it’s recommended that you report this immediately to Uber. Remember these steps:

• Stay calm
• Never click anything from an unknown source
• Report the fraud to Uber and your security team
• Monitor your account for any changes, such as card, contact, and recent login details

Prioritize Data Security and Protection Today

While Uber uses data encryption to protect and secure users’ data, this is not a fool-proof security method. Indeed, a hacker can still potentially gain access to this sensitive information and use reverse-engineering to reveal the original data. This is scary for businesses because this can compromise sensitive details, including everything from credit card numbers to bank account numbers.

What alternatives are there that can prevent cybercriminals from compromising your data? One is known as tokenization, which is an effective security solution that replaces original data with a randomly generated series of numbers that have no real value. If a hacker gains access to your online account, they will soon find out that there is nothing for them to steal. The original data is stored in a secure token vault, while the tokens act as placeholders within a company’s account. As a result, businesses can enjoy improved data security and protection that is vital for their sustainability.