National service Air India has suffered a major cyberattack, wherein the private records of passengers, together with passport and credit score card information had said to be stolen.
Personal data recorded between August 26, 2011 and February 3, 2021, with details such as name, date of birth, contact information, passport information, ticket information, frequent flyer data from Star Alliance and Air India (but no password were compromised) as credit card data is breached – Air India notified
“Although we received the first notification of this from our data processor on February 25th, 2021, we would like to clarify that the identity of the data subjects was only communicated to us by our data processor on March 25th, 2021 and May 4th, 2021.” Clarified the airline.
Air India’s statement here:
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 a personal data leak of certain passengers. This incident affected around 4,500,000 data subjects in the world.
While we had received the first notification in this regard from our data processor on 25.02.2021, we would like to clarify that the identity of the affected data subjects was only provided to us by our data processor on 25.03.2021 & 5.04.2021. The present communication is an effort to apprise of accurate state of facts as on date and to supplement our general announcement of 19th March 2021 initially made via our 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.
We would also like to inform you that the following measures to ensure the safety of the data were immediately taken:
• 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.
Further, our data processor has ensured that no abnormal activity was observed after securing the compromised servers.
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 the safety of their personal data.
The protection of our customer’s personal data is of the highest importance to us and we deeply regret the inconvenience caused and appreciate the continued support and trust of our passengers.
Wait and see the UK’s reaction to the next UK Citizen Data Breach
