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British Airways Apologise For The TWO WEEK Security Data Breach

by msecadm4921

Since GDPR’s enforcement on May 25th 2018, there have been more complaints of security data breaches than ever. With the penalties the greatest they’ve ever been as well, you might have thought that the largest businesses in the UK would be tightening up their online security. Nonetheless, British Airways is the latest company of many to have been hacked on a massive scale.

The latest security news from British Airways is that over 380,000 transactions on their website and app were accessed during the two week data breach from the 21st August to 5th September 2018. It is believed that the hackers managed to successfully input harmful code onto the website, which succeeded in stealing users financial information. This method has been used in previous data breaches, such as on the Ticketmaster website back in February, where the personal details of around 40,000 were stolen.

British Airways has since set up a FAQ page on their website regarding the breach with the latest news for affected customers, but they have declined to comment on who caused the breach stating “as this is a criminal investigation, we are unable to comment on speculation”. Therefore, it is currently unknown who the cybercriminals are.

Since the breach, experts such as Ross Brewer from LogRhythm, a security intelligence firm, have described the attack as ‘astounding’. Most data breaches in recent times have involved just personal details, it is a significantly larger problem when the personal and financial details of customers have been stolen. Not only for the customers affected, but there is added pressure on banks as they try to cancel numerous bank cards.

An apology has been issued by chief executive Alex Cruz expressing that “we are extremely sorry for what has happened”. While BA has assured that everyone will get financial compensation, this may not be enough for the thousands of customers impacted, many of whom were on holiday when the breach occurred.

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