14 DAY TRIAL // Air India has reported that 4.5 million passengers' personal information was exposed in a third-party data breach. Although revealed about two months ago, the real scale of the breach has come out this week, according to Infosecurity Magazine.
The incident had an effect on SITA, an IT provider that claims to represent 90% of the aviation industry. Attackers gained access to servers that run passenger processing systems for airline clients.
Air India stated they were first aware of the attack on February 25. However, the company was unable to confirm the number of people affected until SITA informed it on March 25 and 5.
The statement noted “The breach involved personal data registered between August 26 2011 and February 3 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 card data”.
“However, in respect of this last type of data, CVV/CVC numbers are not held by our data processor”.
All parties were involved in fixing the effects of the attack
Following the incident, Air India reported that the affected servers were secured, external inspectors were called in, credit card issuers were notified, and frequent flyer passwords were reset.
Furthermore, they ensured that no suspicious behavior was detected after securing the compromised servers. They also issued a recommendation for passengers to change their passwords wherever applicable to ensure the safety of their personal data.
Among the other major airlines affected by the breach were Finnair, Malaysia Airlines, Japan Airlines, and Singapore Airlines.
While Singapore Airlines stated that it is not a customer of SITA, it appears that some of its frequent flyer data were compromised by a fellow Star Alliance member.