British Airways (BA) on Friday apologized to customers after the credit card details of thousands of the customers were stolen over a two-week period in the worst ever attack on its website and app.
A news report by Reuters quoted the airline’s Chairman and Chief Executive, Alex Cruz, as saying in London that the airline discovered on Sept. 5 that bookings made between Aug. 21 and Sept. 5 had been infiltrated in a “very sophisticated, malicious criminal” attack.
Cruz said the airline immediately contacted customers when the extent of the breach became clear.
Specifically, he said that about 380,000 card payments were compromised, with hackers obtaining names, street and email addresses, credit card numbers, expiry dates and security codes – sufficient information to steal from accounts.
The attack came 15 months after the carrier suffered a massive computer system failure at London’s Heathrow airport, which stranded 75,000 customers over a holiday weekend.
Shares in BA’s parent, International Airlines Group, fell 3 per cent in early deals on Friday due to the attack.
The airline boss expressed the airline’s “deeply sorry” for the disruption caused by the sophisticated crime, which was unprecedented in the more than 20 years that BA had operated online.
He said that the attackers had not broken the airline’s encryption but did not explain exactly how they had obtained the customer information.
Cruz explained further: “There were other methods, very sophisticated efforts, by criminals in obtaining the data. It was having access to our systems in an illicit way, it was very sophisticated.”
He maintained that the British Airways informed customers affected by the attack on Thursday and advised them to contact their banks or credit card providers and follow their recommended advice.
This is even as the carrier also placed ads in national newspapers on Friday.
The British Airways Chairman assured that anyone who lost out financially would be compensated by the airline, adding that the airline had launched an investigation and notified police and other relevant authorities.
