Australian airline Qantas says 6 million customers’ data exposed in cyber hack

Australian airline Qantas said 6 million customers’ personal information was exposed in a data breach on Monday (June 30) local time. The airline said in a statement on Wednesday (July 2) that hackers had accessed a Qantas customer service platform, which is operated by a third-party company. The platform stored 6 million customer service records—including names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and frequent flyer numbers.

However, Qantas confirmed that no customer credit card details, financial information or passport details were on the platform. Qantas took swift action and secured the system after detecting “unusual activity” on the platform. The statement said all Qantas systems are now secure and there has been no impact on the company’s operations or security. The airline said it was not yet clear how much data was stolen, but it is believed to be “significant”.

Qantas is working to support its affected customers and is cooperating with the Australian Cyber ​​Security Centre, the Australian Federal Police and cybersecurity experts in the investigation. Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson said in a statement: “We sincerely apologise to our customers and understand that this is a cause for concern. Customers trust us to keep their personal information safe and we take that responsibility seriously. We are in contact with customers today and our main focus is to provide them with the support they need.” Qantas shares fell 3.5% following the incident, compared with a 0.4% gain in the broader market, according to Reuters.

In recent years, Australia has been hit by a series of major cyberattacks and data breaches. In 2019, the government and opposition parties in Australia were targeted by cyberattacks just three months before a national election. Just two years later, Nine News was hit by a cyberattack that forced it to shut down its live show—the largest cyberattack on a media company in Australian history. Most recently, in 2022, Russian cybercriminals launched a ransomware attack on Australia’s largest private health insurer, Medibank. The sensitive personal information of around 9.7 million customers, including health claims details, was stolen—some of which was later leaked onto the dark web.

Last year, Australia named and imposed sanctions on a Russian national suspected of involvement in the attack. He is believed to have been a member of the Russian ransomware gang ‘Revil’, which has previously carried out large-scale attacks on targets in the United States and other countries. Earlier in 2022, Russian authorities raided the gang and detained several people.