GetTaxi Blames Rival Uber for Denial-of-service Attack

Taxi New York  2GetTaxi has identified rival service Uber as the culprit behind a denial-of-service attack on its taxi booking app in New York last week.

According to GetTaxi – which operates as Gett in New York – it saw nearly two hundred fake bookings, which were cancelled once the driver was dispatched or had arrived to make a pickup, from around a dozen people, who it believes are Uber employees.

After the bookings were cancelled, the involved drivers received a SMS message from Uber to leave Gett and join its service instead.

“We quickly blocked the attack and the Gett system was not compromised,” said Gett US CEO Jing Herman. “Gett is determined to become the go-to app for New Yorkers and we’re focused on winning one user at a time.”

GetTaxi also operates in the UK, Russia and its home nation of Israel. Uber, by comparison, is available in 26 countries worldwide, with a particular focus on the US.