Reportedly, in a Latest Cyber crime incident reported by a Major airline , Hackers have stolen data on about 4.5 million Air India passengers around the world .
Stolen Data includes Names, credit card numbers and passport information , an Air India said in a statement in its website.
The breach involved personal data registered between 26th August 2011 and 3rd February 2021, with details that included name, date of birth, contact information, passport information, ticket information, Star Alliance and Air India frequent flyer data (but no passwords data were affected) as well as credit cards data. However, in respect of this last type of data, CVV/CVC numbers are not held by our data processor.
The state-owned giant said it was “securing the compromised servers” and using “external specialists” on data security as well as working with credit card companies.
“We deeply regret the inconvenience caused and appreciate continued support and trust of our passengers,” the airline said.
Air india says , they are following below measures to ensure safety of the data.
• Investigating the data security incident;
• Securing the compromised servers;
• Engaging external specialists of data security incidents;
• Notifying and liaising with the credit card issuers;
• Resetting passwords of Air India FFP program.
Prior to this also, there were a number of airlines encountered such cyber attacks. British Airways was fined $28 million last year by a British watchdog after details of 400,000 passengers were lost in a 2018 cyberattack.
Cathay Pacific was fined $700,000 after details of more than nine million clients were lost in 2018.
And low-cost carrier EasyJet said last year that hackers had taken the email and travel details of about nine million customers.
Air India announced in March that it had been informed in February by its data processing company, SITA PSS of a cyberattack.
The breach involved personal data registered between August 2011 and February 2021, the airline said.
SITA PSS, that provides IT backup to much of the aviation industry, said at the time that it had been the target of a “highly sophisticated attack” that had affected a number of airlines.
Air India is part of the Star Alliance coalition of airlines and SITA handles computer operations for its frequent flyer programme.
Other airlines in the alliance warned passengers in March of the cyberattack but most said only names and frequent flyer numbers had been accessed.
