Not enough confidence in Uber hack figures to publish UK numbers, says minister

The Government has not published the number of UK citizens affected by a major hack of Uber because it does not have sufficient confidence in the figure provided by the taxi-hailing company, a minister has said.

Culture minister Matt Hancock said work was continuing by UK authorities to investigate the scale of the hack, and figures would be released within days.

Mr Hancock also told the Commons the initial assessment was that the stolen information did not leave Uber customers vulnerable to financial crime.

Answering an urgent question, Mr Hancock said: "In terms of the number, we do not have sufficient confidence in the number that we have been told by Uber to be able to go public on it.

"We are working with the National Cyber Security Centre and the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) to have more confidence in that figure.

"He'll remember from the Equifax breach that the initial figure suggested went up, and we want to make sure we get to the bottom of it.

"But I will, we will, publish further details within days, and if required I'm very happy to come before the House next week to take further questions."

He told MPs earlier: "At this stage, our initial assessment is that for Uber customers, the stolen information is not the sort of information that would allow direct financial crime.

"But we are working urgently to verify this further, and we rule nothing out."