Air India (AI), the government's erstwhile jewel in the sky, reported a massive data breach which has compromised the personal details and information of 4.5 million customers. The airline’s passenger system, managed by IT software company SITA which works exclusively with the airline industry globally, suffered a cyber-security attack in February this year, the airline said in a statement on May 15. "This is to inform that SITA PSS our data processor of the passenger service system (which is responsible for storing and processing of personal information of the passengers) had recently been subjected to a cybersecurity attack leading to personal data leak of certain passengers. This incident affected around 4,500,000 data subjects in the world,” AI said. While the national carrier said that credit and debit card information of customers was not leaked as part of the breach as SITA does not store such information, passenger details like name, date of birth, contact information, passport information, ticket information, Star Alliance and Air India frequent flyer data was compromised. The hackers managed to extract customer information, barring payment details, that was registered on the SITA-AI system between between August 26, 2011 and February 3, 2021, the statement said. Adding that while the two entities will take remedial actions, passengers should change their passwords (on the AI website) to ensure safety of their personal data. AI was informed about the breach in February 25, 2021, and it issued a statement back in March 2021 informing customers about the issue. However, this…
