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Frequent flyers and other customers have begun receiving emails warning them that their data has been compromised.
Australia’s national carrier, Qantas, has moved quickly to begin notifying customers affected by this week’s data breach, which may have affected up to 6 million customers.
The airline began notifying customers just hours after it had confirmed the incident, which impacted a third-party platform used by one of its contact centres. This author received an initial notice just after 1pm on 2 June, warning of the incident in general terms, and a second later that evening, at about 8:30pm.
“I’m writing to inform you that we believe your personal information was accessed during the cyber incident we recently experienced. I want to personally apologise that this has happened and explain what we know and how we’re supporting you,” the second advisory, on behalf of Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson, said.
The advisory goes on to explain the nature of the incident and when it occurred, and to confirm that Qantas’ systems remain secure, before explaining exactly what data was – and wasn’t – compromised in the attack.
“Our initial investigations show the compromised data may include names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and Frequent Flyer numbers,” the advisory said.
“Importantly, your credit card details, financial information, passport details, and Frequent Flyer passwords were not accessed. Your Qantas Points and account remain secure.”
The email warns Qantas customers to remain alert for any unusual communications claiming to be from the airline and to be cautious of any messages or emails asking for passwords or personal information.
At this point in time, customers are not being advised to change their PINs or passwords.
“We’re taking this incident extremely seriously and working with government agencies and independent cyber security experts,” the advisory said.
“We’re implementing additional security measures to strengthen system monitoring and protection of your information as part of our response. If we identify new important information as we continue to investigate and respond to this incident, we will share it with our customers.”
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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