Qantas data breach exposes up to six million customer profiles
2 hours ago Share Save Tabby Wilson BBC News, Sydney Share Save
Reuters The airline says there will be no impact to Qantas' operations
Qantas is contacting customers after a cyber attack targeted their third-party customer service platform. On 30 June, the Australian airline detected "unusual activity" on a platform used by its contact centre to store the data of six million people, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers. Upon detection of the breach, Qantas took "immediate steps and contained the system", according to a statement. The company is still investigating the full extent of the breach, but says it is expecting the proportion of data stolen to be "significant".
It has assured the public that passport details, credit card details and personal financial information were not held in the breached system, and no frequent flyer accounts, passwords or PIN numbers have been compromised. Qantas has notified the Australian Federal Police of the breach, as well as the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. "We sincerely apologise to our customers and we recognise the uncertainty this will cause," said Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson. She asked customers to call the dedicated support line if they had concerns, and confirmed that there would be no impact to Qantas' operations or the safety of the airline.