The recent British Airways hack that compromised the data of almost 380,000 customers of the airline has caused concern among travelers. BA chief Executive Alex Cruz has apologized customers for the security breach and promised compensation.
British Airways Hack
The security breach of the British Airways customers took place between August 9:58 PM BST on August 21 and 9:45 PM on September 5. According to the airline, the British Airways hack compromised financial and personal details of customers.
While talking to BBC, British Airways chief Alex Cruz said, “The first thing to say is that I am extremely sorry of what happened.” He apologized and pledged to work with affected customers and help them for any financial hardships they suffered.
The airline also placed an advertisement in various newspapers to apologize for the data theft and inconvenience caused to its customers.
Cruz also told that airline has partnered with various networks that monitor the websites around the globe and it received alerts about Cyber attack on September 5. The airline then communicated to the customers when actual customer data started being compromised.
Impact of Security Breach on British Airways
Cruz didn’t reveal the exact nature of British Airways hack but told that it was a sophisticated effort by criminals rather than a breach of encryption. The data breach badly affected the airline’s reputation as its shares fell by 3% on Friday, according to media reports. The impact was much eminent as investors speculated a drop in the sale of the ticket after the security breach.
A Challenge for the British Airways
British Airways hack is another recent challenge for the airline that suffered massive disruption due to power failure last year- Its systems had stopped working resulting in chaos. Almost tens of thousands of passengers remained stranded on London airports after Airways experienced an IT disaster.
While British Airways hack is a challenge to tackle for the airline, there is an equal concern for everyone on whether to place trust in online transactions or not. While companies and businesses around the globe are shifting their operations to the digital platform, they need to come up with a robust strategy to secure the users’ and organization’s data.
