Users personal data on Careem's app breached in a cyber-attack,

Careem, a Dubai-based ride-hailing app which has left behind its rival Uber in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan and other middle eastern countries, today warned its users that their personal data had been compromised in a massive cyber-security breach.

In a statement, it confirmed that sensitive information like customers' names, their email addresses, their phone numbers and their trip history data (pick-up and drop-off points) has been stolen by the hackers, but said, "there is no evidence that your password or credit card number has been compromised".

"Customers' credit card information is kept on an external third-party PCP-compliant server," Careem claimed and said that the breach affects all customers and captains who signed up for the service before January 14, 2018.

"Users who signed up for the service after that date have not been affected," it said.

Launched in mid-2016, Careem was one of the most used ride-hailing services in the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and Turkey. It has even left behind Uber, which is present in most countries of the world, in big cities like Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad.

Careem said that when the data breach was detected in January, there were 14 million customers and 558,000 captains active on the system across 13 countries.

The ride-hailing app, however, did not comment on the origin or nature of the cybersecurity breach, saying, We do not know the identity of the hacker."