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TaskRabbit notifies users of 'cybersecurity incident,' shuts down service

A data breach hits the gig economy.

Rachel Kraus

on April 16, 2018

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TaskRabbit notifies users of 'cybersecurity incident,' shuts down service

That's one worried bunny. Credit: DeepDesertPhoto/Getty Images/RooM RF

Bad news for to-do lists everywhere: It appears that TaskRabbit has been compromised.

On Monday, TaskRabbit notified users about a 'cybersecurity incident,' and advised users to change their passwords. The crowdsourced chore company also took its app and service totally offline while working out the issue.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

"TaskRabbit is currently investigating a cybersecurity incident," the email read. "We understand how important your personal information is and are working with an outside cybersecurity firm and law enforcement to determine the specifics."

As of 8:40 p.m. ET Monday, the app and website remained offline. The nature of the attack, or how many users were affected, is not currently known.

TaskRabbit is owned by Ikea, which acquired the gig economy app in fall 2017. According to CNet, TaskRabbit has over 1.5 million users, and, per Forbes, over 60,000 "taskers" who make money on the platform.

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Twitter users noticed a potential issue Monday afternoon. Several said that company information became available when they visited TaskRabbit online. And some postulated that it could be a phishing attack.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

As TaskRabbit works out the issues, please, let's just hold the bunny puns.

UPDATE: April 16, 2018, 8:47 p.m. ET In a statement to Mashable, a TaskRabbit spokesperson said: "For any Tasker who had a task scheduled today and is unable to complete the task, we will compensate them appropriately."

UPDATE: April 18, 2018, 5:00 p.m. ET TaskRabbit appears to be back online.

UPDATE: April 18, 2018, 3:56 p.m. PDT As TaskRabbit came back online Wednesday afternoon, CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot updated users about the site and app outage. In her note she briefly explained what happened: "Preliminary evidence shows that an unauthorized user gained access to our systems."

She also outlined steps the company is taking to make its platform more secure.

Topics Cybersecurity

Rachel Kraus

Rachel Kraus is a Mashable Tech Reporter specializing in health and wellness. She is an LA native, NYU j-school graduate, and writes cultural commentary across the internetz.