Qantas Cyberattack: Airline Takes Steps to Strengthen Customer Protection
The Australian flag carrier, Qantas, has confirmed that a cyberattack occurred on its systems, compromising customer data. The airline has apologized for the breach and is taking steps to strengthen protection for its customers.
According to Qantas, scammers impersonating the airline have been active in claiming personal information from affected customers. The airline recommends that customers remain vigilant for unusual communications claiming to be from Qantas or requesting sensitive details like passwords.
The breach was detected after unusual activity at a contact centre on Monday. An initial review found that compromised data included customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and frequent flyer numbers. The airline has confirmed that about six million customers had service records on the affected platform.
Qantas has apologized to customers for the breach, which was detected after unusual activity at a contact centre on Monday. An initial review found compromised data included some customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers.
The airline said it had increased resourcing in contact centres to handle customer queries. Qantas received more than 5000 inquiries through a special customer support line established after the cyberattack. The airline has communicated directly with its frequent flyers to notify them of the incident and to apologize for the breach, which was detected after unusual activity at a contact centre on Monday.
"Since Wednesday morning, the airline has communicated directly with its frequent flyers to notify them of the incident and to apologise that this has occurred," said Qantas. The airline said frequent flyers who had not received that email should check their spam or junk folders.
Qantas also informed around six million customers who had personal information within the impacted platform, but there was no communication from scammers claiming to have the data. "We're continuing to work with Government authorities to investigate the incident," said Qantas today. "Additional security measures have been put in place to further restrict access and strengthen system monitoring and detection."
The airline has also introduced more security measures for frequent flyer accounts, including requiring additional identification for account changes. Cybersecurity expert, Patrick Sharp, told the Herald that the attack had hallmarks of the Scattered Spider hacker group. The stolen data would likely be used for scams and telemarketing.
Consumer NZ said the hack raised issues about data retention and New Zealand's privacy complaint systems and the penalty regime for data leaks. "Qantas has not been contacted by anyone claiming to have the data and we're continuing to work with Government authorities to investigate the incident," said Qantas today.