NewDelhi May 22 : A massive breach in Air India’s server\u00a0this February led to compromising personal data of nearly 45,00,000 people worldwide. The leaked data was collected between August 26, 2011 and February 3, 2021.<\/p>\n
This included people’s personal details like name, date of birth, contact information, passport information, ticket details, credit card data, among others.<\/p>\n
The massive data leak was caused by a “sophisticated cyberattack” on Air India’s passenger service system provider SITA.<\/p>\n
“While we and our data processor continue to take remedial actions…We would also encourage passengers to change passwords wherever applicable to ensure safety of their personal data,” Air India said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It added that data of 4.5 million passengers — which includes Air India’s passengers — across the world has been “affected” due to the cyberattack on SITA. SITA is based out of Geneva in Switzerland.<\/p>\n
“Air India would like to inform its valued customers that its passenger service system provider has informed about a sophisticated cyberattack it was subjected to in the last week of February 2021,” the airline said in its statement.<\/p>\n
It added that while the level and scope of sophistication is being ascertained through forensic analysis and the exercise is ongoing, SITA has confirmed that no unauthorised activity has been detected inside the system’s infrastructure after the incident.<\/p>\n
“Air India meanwhile is in liaison with various regulatory agencies in India and abroad, and has apprised them about the incident in accordance with its obligations,” the airline said.<\/p>\n
In regard to credit cards’ data, Air India clarified that CVV\/CVC numbers are not held by SITA.<\/p>\n
It said that the identity of its affected passengers was provided to it by SITA on March 25 and April 5 only.<\/p>\n
Air India along with the service provider is carrying out risk assessment and would further update as and when it becomes available, it said.<\/p>\n
The airline said it has taken following steps after the data security incident: Secured the compromised servers, engaged external specialists of data security incidents, notified and in talk with the credit card issuers and reset the passwords of Air India frequent flyer programme.<\/p>\n