Air India data breach in February affected 4.5m passengers

NEW DELHI • The personal data of about 4.5 million passengers of Air India was leaked in a cyber attack on the airline's data processor, but the compromised servers were later secured, the Indian state-run carrier said in a statement.

The debt-laden airline, a member of global airlines consortium Star Alliance, said the breach involved data such as names as well as contact, passport, ticket and credit card details, registered between August 2011 and February this year. No passwords were affected.

Air India's data processor, Sita PSS (Passenger Service System), had in recent months informed the airline about a cyber attack it faced in February, following which the carrier investigated the matter and secured compromised servers.

"Our data processor (Sita) has ensured that no abnormal activity was observed after securing the compromised servers," the airline said late on Friday.

Sita, which serves the Star Alliance airlines, including Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa, said in March that it had faced a "highly sophisticated" cyber attack after which it initiated containment measures.

It was not immediately clear if any other airlines were affected by the incident, Sita reported that month.

Asked for comment, Sita yesterday referred Reuters to its March announcement, adding that it had duly informed Air India and "the matter remains under active investigation by Sita".

For Air India, the breach is the latest headache at a time when it is trying to rein in costs while the government seeks to sell its interest in the company.

Other major cyber incidents in the recent past include that involving easyJet, which last year said hackers had accessed the e-mail and travel details of around nine million customers.

Separately, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said the same group of online extortionists blamed for striking the Irish health system earlier this month had also hit at least 16 United States medical and first-response networks in the past year.

In an alert made public last Thursday by the American Hospital Association, the FBI said the cyber criminals, using the malicious software dubbed "Conti", have targeted law enforcement, emergency medical services, dispatch centres and municipalities.

Ireland's Health Service Executive shut down its networks on May 14 following a Conti-linked attack that crippled diagnostic services, disrupted Covid-19 testing and forced hospitals to cancel appointments.

REUTERS