Hackers reach out to Qantas following major data breach

Australian airline Qantas said that the threat actors who infiltrated its contact centre’s network and stole confidential data have now contacted the company, a week after the incident.

 

On July 2, Qantas said that it detected a data security incident affecting a third-party platform used by one of its airline contact centres, but added that the incident did not affect its internal network or impact its daily operations.

 

“There are 6 million customers that have service records on this platform. We are continuing to investigate the proportion of the data that has been stolen, though we expect it will be significant. An initial review has confirmed the data includes some customers’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers. 

 

“Importantly, credit card details, personal financial information and passport details are not held in this system. No frequent flyer accounts were compromised nor have passwords, PIN numbers or log in details been accessed,” Qantas said.

 

Qantas has informed the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner about the incident. Due to the criminal nature of the breach, the Australian Federal Police was also notified about the incident.

 

In an update on July 8, Qantas said that the hacker group who infiltrated the internal network of its contact center has contacted the airlines.

 

“A potential cyber criminal has made contact, and we are currently working to validate this. As this is a criminal matter, we have engaged the Australian Federal Police and won’t be commenting any further on the details of the contact,” the airlines added.

 

Qantas added that while it is confirmed that the sensitive personal data of its customers was compromised during the incident, the data hasn’t been published on the dark web yet.

 

“There is no evidence that any personal data stolen from Qantas has been released, but with the support of specialist cyber security experts, we continue to actively monitor,” Qantas added