Air India says February’s data breach affected 4.5m passengers

Personal data of about 4.5m passengers of Air India was leaked in a cyber attack on the airline’s data processor but the compromised servers were later secured, the Indian state-run carrier said. The debt-laden airline, a member of global airlines consortium Star Alliance, said the breach involved personal data, such as name, contact, passport, ticket and credit card details, registered between Aug 2011 and Feb 2021. No passwords were affected. Air India's data processor, SITA PSS (Passenger Service System), had in recent months informed the airline about a cyber attack it faced in February, following which the Indian airline investigated the matter and secured compromised servers. "Our data processor (SITA) has ensured that no abnormal activity was observed after securing the compromised servers," the airline said late Friday. SITA, which serves the Star Alliance of airlines, had in March said it had faced a "highly sophisticated" cyber-attack after which it initiated containment measures. It was not immediately clear if any other airlines were affected by the incident SITA reported in March.<br/>