In a massive data breach personal details of 45 lakh passengers have been leaked following a cyber-attack on SITA, Air India’s passenger service system.

The airline, in an official statement, said, “Air India would like to inform its valued customers that its passenger service system provider has informed about a sophisticated cyber-attack it was subjected to in the last week of February 2021.”

This incident has affected around 45 lakh customers world wide registered between 26th August 2011 and 3rd February 2021, Air India said. So far, none of the hacking organizations has taken responsibility.

What details have been released?

The cyber-attack on SITA, based out of Geneva, Switzerland, has released the personal data, including name, date of birth, contact information, passport information, ticket information and credit card data, of 45 lakh Air India passengers across the world.

 Air India’s response  

In its communique, Air India said, “While we had received the first notification in this regard from our data processor on 25.02.2021, we would like to clarify that the identity of the affected data subjects was only provided to us by our data processor on 25.03.2021 and 5.04.2021,” it added.

SITA had first announced the cyber attack in March. Subsequently, several airlines, including Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, informed passengers that some of their data has been leaked.

 What process is going on?

 Air India has said it has launched an investigation into the incident. Besides, the carrier claims to have taken steps including “securing the compromised servers, engaging external specialists of data security incidents, contacting credit card issuers and resetting passwords of its frequent flyer programme.”

Steps for affected passengers to take on?

Though Air India has assured its passengers that there was no evidence of any “misuse” of the data, the airline has asked the passengers to change their passwords after the breach to ensure the safety of their confidential data. In an official statement to the affected passengers, Air India said, “For more information, you can contact on email id aidata.helpdesk@airindia.in, or call on 01242641415 or visit the website www.airindia.in.”