Qantas, Australia’s largest airline, disclosed on Wednesday that it has suffered a substantial data breach compromising the personal information of approximately six million passengers.
According to Qantas, cybercriminals infiltrated one of its call-center operations on June 30, successfully extracting a sizeable amount of sensitive customer data. This stolen information includes passenger names, email addresses, birth dates, telephone numbers, and frequent flyer membership numbers.
This incident marks the latest in a series of recent cyber-attacks against global airlines. Other notable recent victims include Canadian-based WestJet airline, which experienced a similar breach attributed by cybersecurity experts and media analyses to a hacking collective known as “Scattered Spider.” Hawaiian Airlines also confirmed earlier this month that it, too, fell victim to a data breach.
While the group behind the breach of Qantas’s customer data hasn’t been conclusively identified, cybersecurity experts at Google’s security division, Mandiant, cautioned airlines and related entities to heighten their defenses, warning them to remain vigilant against sophisticated social engineering campaigns.
