They noted that automated web crawlers also visited the site with the security key. Google and other search engines use such crawlers to visit and gather information from web pages for indexing and caching. One of those crawlers could have saved the key somewhere else, the subscriber’s attorneys argued in court filings, where it could have been accessed by the hacker.
The attorneys also suggested that a disgruntled Uber engineer could have taken the driver data to a new job, as it would be valuable for a competitor.
In her ruling, Beeler concluded there was “no evidence” that the key was available anywhere else online other than the place Uber inadvertently posted it.
Lyft, with a valuation of $2.5 billion, is much smaller than rival Uber, valued at $51 billion, based on previous funding rounds. The companies compete fiercely for drivers and customers.
Lambert has been Lyft’s CTO since 2012, according to his LinkedIn page. Prior to that, he was a software engineer at Google for 5 years, working on mobile maps and Google location.
Editing by Sue Horton and Amy Stevens
Article Appeared @http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/08/us-uber-tech-lyft-hacking-exclusive-idUSKCN0S20D420151008