According to the flagship airline of Australia, hackers hacked a system that held personal information belonging to 6 million customers, prompting a major cyberattack on Qantas.
After discovering “unusual activity” on a third-party platform on Monday, Qantas said on Wednesday that it took “immediate steps” to secure its systems.
The airline is looking into the amount of data that was stolen, according to a statement from Qantas.
According to the airline, customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, frequent flyer numbers, and other sensitive data are included in the affected data, but not credit card information, personal financial information, or passport information.
Qantas informed the police, the Australian Cyber Security Center, and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner that it had implemented additional security measures.
Vanessa Hudson, the CEO of Qantas Group, apologized to customers for the breach.
“We take the responsibility that our customers have for protecting their personal information seriously,” said Hudson.
“We are contacting our customers right now, and our goal is to give them the support they require.”
Following a string of controversy during the COVID-19 pandemic, including revelations that it sold tickets for thousands of cancelled flights and fought a bid by Qatar Airways to expand its flights to Europe, Qantas is now working to rebuild its reputation.
Qantas moved up 10 spots in the 2025 ranking to earn its lowest-ever spot at Skytrax’s World Airline Awards last year, falling from 17th to 24th place.
Alan Joyce, Hudson’s predecessor, resigned two months before his anticipated retirement in 2023, while acknowledging the airline’s “commitment to advance its renewal as a priority.”
A cybercriminal group known as Scattered Spider had expanded its scope of its targets, according to the FBI in the United States last week.
Source: Aljazeera
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