Air India struck by massive data breach, information of 4.5 million passengers leaked

This February, a huge hack into Air India's service system- SITA compromised the personal information of nearly 45,00,000 individuals globally. The stolen information was gathered between August 26, 2011 and February 20, 2021, according to an official statement.

A certain number of Air India passengers' personal details, such as name, date of birth, contact information, passport information, ticket information, and credit card data, was leaked in the said period of time.

The airline in statement said, “Air India would like to inform its valued customers that its passenger service system provider has informed about a sophisticated cyber-attack it was subjected to in the last week of February 2021.”

Air India urged passengers to change their passwords to secure the safety of their personal data. While ensuring that, “We and our data processor continue to take remedial actions.”

The cyberattack on SITA, which is based out of Geneva- Switzerland has "affected" the data of 4.5 million Air India passengers worldwide.

While the extent and complexity of the cyber-attack is being determined by forensic investigation, which is still underway, SITA has stated that no unauthorised intrusion has been found inside the system's infrastructure following the incident.

Following the data breach incident, the airline stated that it secured the infected servers, employed external data security incident experts, informed and contacted credit card issuers, and reset the passwords for the Air India frequent flyer programme.

Regarding credit card details, Air India explained that SITA does not have CVV/CVC numbers.

The airline assured, "Air India meanwhile is in liaison with various regulatory agencies in India and abroad and has apprised them about the incident in accordance with its obligations."