45 Lakh Affected In Massive Air India Data Breach Including Credit Cards

Ten years' worth of Air India customer data including credit cards, passports and phone numbers have been leaked in a massive cyber-attack on its data processor in February, the airline has announced.

The incident has affected around 45 lakh customers registered between 26th August 2011 and 3rd February 2021, Air India said, disclosing the scale of the breach nearly three months after it was first informed of it.

Names, date of birth, contact information and ticket information have also been compromised in the 'highly sophisticated' attack that targeted Geneva-based passenger system operator SITA that serves the Star Alliance of airlines including Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and United besides Air India.

"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," Air India said in an email to customers.

"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 and 5.04.2021," it added.

"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 airline said.

Air India said 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 programme.

"While we and our data processor continue to take remedial actions...We would also encourage passengers to change passwords wherever applicable to ensure safety of their personal data," it said.

SITA had publicly announced the incident first in March prompting almost a dozen different airlines including Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines to inform passengers that some of their data was accessed by an intruder.

Last year British Airways incurred a 20 million-pound (over Rs 180 crore) fine after failing to protect data that left more than 4 lakh of its customers' details the subject of a 2018 cyber-attack.

Other major cyber incidents in the recent past include another London-listed airline, easyJet, which last year said hackers had accessed the email and travel details of around 90 lakh customers.