The ride sharing wars between Uber and Lyft are growing more acrimonious each day. Now new revelations from Uber regarding the hacking of the company’s system last year are raising questions about how far the tech companies are willing to go in their competition for online superiority.
This week, Uber said it was looking into an IP address linked to the March 2014 security breach, which led to up to 50,000 of its drivers names and license numbers being improperly accessed, according to Reuters. Sources told Reuters that the IP address, which showed access to a security key that was used in the hacking, was assigned to Chris Lambert, chief of technology at Lyft.
However, court papers that revealed the IP address do not connect it to the hacking, but Uber has sued to force a court investigation of the address. While court papers show that the hack did not originate from that IP address, the judge agreed with Uber that the information requested could help lead to the hackers.
Uber’s suit charges the hacker with violations of federal and state computer fraud and abuse laws. The company’s suit identifies the IP address as the only one that the company has not eliminated from suspicion.
A Lyft spokesman denied that the company or any of its employees had anything to do with hacking.