American Airlines has had to admit that they were pwned by hackers and customer data is in the wild. AP has the story:
American Airlines says personal information of a “very small number” of customers and employees was compromised after hackers breached some employee email accounts.
The airline said Tuesday that it has no indication that the attackers have misused any of the personal information.
American said the breach was discovered in July. The airline declined to say how precisely how many people had their personal information exposed or the nature of that information.
“American Airlines is aware of a phishing campaign that led to the unauthorized access to a limited number of team member mailboxes,” American spokesman Curtis Blessing said. “A very small number of customers and employees’ personal information was contained in those email accounts.
The way this statement was written by American Airlines leaves me with more questions than answers. Perhaps they don’t know the full extent of the breach. Or they do and simply don’t want to say. Either is plausible. John Gunn, CEO of Token takes this view:
“The reputational damage from this breach will likely far exceed the out-of-pocket losses, especially in an industry where proper precautions and safety are paramount in customers’ selection of which airline they fly with.”
This is 100% true. And it likely doesn’t help that American Airlines is clearly being guarded about what it says. I would keep an eye on this story as I am sure that the airline will have to say more on this hack.