EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The Dubai-based Uber competitor, Careem, announced that it was hit with a cyberattack in January. Hackers were able to access systems containing customer and driver account data for 14 million users.

The breach was discovered on January 14, according to a statement on the the company’s website. “The stolen data includes customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, and trip history. Careem said that it discovered no evidence that passwords or credit card information had been breached,” reports Gizmodo. It is also believed that customers and drivers who signed up with the service after January 14 were not affected.

Addressing the lapse in time between when the incident occurred and when it was announced, Careem’s statement said, “Cybercrime investigations are immensely complicated and take time. We wanted to make sure we had the most accurate information before notifying people.  Since discovering the issue, we have worked to understand what happened, who was affected, and what we needed to do to strengthen our network defences.”

According to Bloomberg, the company has been negotiating an initial public offering. Based on how cybersecurity issues have impacted other company valuations, such as Yahoo, it’ll be be interesting to see if Careem is impacted. Bloomberg reports, “The firm could be valued at about $1.5 billion, with a share sale likely by early 2019.”

Get the full story at Bloomberg.