Air India faces 'Cyber Attack'; 4.5 Million customers' credit card details leaked

NewsBharati    22-May-2021
Total Views |
New Delhi, May 22: Air India has announced that the company has suffered from a major cyberattack, that has led to personal information data leaked of lakhs of passengers, including their credit card and passport details. The company has been informed about the cyberattack via press release. According to the company, the resultant data breach involved personal data registered between August 26, 2011, and February 20, 2021.
 
air India _1  H
 
 
The incident has affected around 45 lakh customer data subjects across the globe. Details like name, date of birth, contact information, passport details, ticket information, Star Alliance and Air India frequent flyer data as well as credit card data were have been leaked during the cyber attack. However, Air India has maintained that CVV/CVC numbers of passengers have not been compromised as that is not stored by the airline's data processor.
 
 
The cyberattack has also affected passengers of other airlines such as Malaysia Airlines, Finnair, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, and Cathay Pacific.
 
“This is to inform that SITA PSS our data processor of the passenger service system (which is responsible for storing and processing of personal information of the passengers) had recently been subjected to a cybersecurity attack leading to personal data leak of certain passengers. This incident affected around 4,500,000 data subjects in the world," read a statement released by Air India.
 
 
 
Air India has further urged passengers to change passwords wherever applicable to ensure the safety of their data. "While we and our data processor continue to take remedial actions including but not limited to the above, we would also encourage passengers to change passwords wherever applicable to ensure safety of their data. The protection of our customer's data is of the highest importance to us and we deeply regret the inconvenience caused and appreciate continued support and trust of our passengers," Air India said in the statement.
 
Air India further said that it had launched an investigation into the incident and took steps including securing the compromised servers, engaging external specialists of data security incidents, contacting credit card issuers, and resetting passwords of its frequent flyer program.
 
 
Earlier in March 2021, Air India said its data processor SITA PSS had flagged a cyber-attack it was subjected to in the last week of February and said it led to the leak of personal data of some of the national carrier’s passengers.
.