Published on Friday, March 5, 2021

Customers of several Star Alliance carriers impacted in data breach

A 'highly sophisticated' data hack has compromised hundreds of thousands of customers with Star Alliance airlines.

The attack targeted the IT systems of aviation tech company SITA.

"We recognise that the Covid-19 pandemic has raised concerns about security threats, and, at the same time, cyber-criminals have become more sophisticated and active. This was a highly sophisticated attack," SITA said in a statement.

TravelMole reported on Thursday that more than half a million Singapore Airlines customers were impacted although it is unclear if any data has been used for criminal intent.

SITA has informed Malaysia Airlines, Finnair and Jeju Air that passengers may have been impacted by the breach to passenger service system (PSS) servers.

Air New Zealand has also been affected and its customers have been informed.

Other Star Alliance member airlines include United Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Canada, Swiss, SAS and Croatia Airlines.

"SITA acted swiftly and initiated targeted containment measures. The matter remains under continued investigation by the security incident response team with the support of leading external experts in cyber-security."

The breach seems to be linked to frequent flyer data but does not include member passwords, credit card information or other personal customer data.