Three months after SITA (a global provider of IT and telecommunications services to the aviation industry) was hacked, Air India revealed that the said security incident resulted in the theft of data of around 4.5 million of its customers.
The breach exposed personal data spanning nearly 10 years, from August 26, 2011 to February 3, 2021, Air India said in a statement. The data stolen included names, dates of birth, contact details, passport details, ticket information, Star Alliance and Air India frequent flyer data, and credit card details. However, no passwords or CVV/CVC data were stolen , as this information is not held by SITA.
Read also: SITA: Its hack affects millions of airline customers
SITA processes data from Air India's passenger service system. While the SITA hack was discovered in late February, Air India said it realized the severity of the incident in April. Since then, the airline has been conducting investigations, securing the compromised servers, hiring external experts, notifying and contacting credit card issuers, and resetting Air India's FFP passwords.
When the hack was revealed, SITA said that Star Alliance and One World airlines were affected. In addition to Air India, Finnair, Japan Airlines, Jeju Air, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines, Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines were among those affected.
In March, Singapore Airlines revealed that 580,000 of its frequent flyer members were affected by the incident.
See also: Business security is improving but risks still exist
SITA said it provides services to around 90% of airlines worldwide, which amounts to 2,800 customers, including airlines, airports and government agencies.
Over the weekend, several airlines were forced to cancel or delay flightsafter Sabre said its IT services were disrupted worldwide. Virgin Australia, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines were among the airlines affected.
Suggestion: Microsoft: Hackers target airline organizations with new malware!
Sabre said the outage was caused by its hardware provider, Dell EMC, but stressed that the issue has been resolved.
Information source: zdnet.com
