SITA data breach affects airline passengers across the globe

Another travel industry data breach has recently hit the headlines, with the popular airline IT provider SITA suffering a monumental cyberattack. The SITA data breach is thought to have exposed information belonging to hundreds of thousands of passengers.

Among the affected airlines are those owned by Star Alliance, the world’s largest airline group, and British Airways is also affected. Some of the thousands of clients that we represent for the 2018 BA data breaches have already come forward for our assistance.

The travel industry has been plagued by data breaches, with companies such as Marriott and easyJet falling prey to significant hacks in recent years. The wealth of information that is held by airlines and travel companies makes them prime targets for cybercriminals, and the effects can be devastating for those affected.

The SITA data breach – what happened?

On 24^th February, SITA suffered an attack on its servers that hold swathes of customer data. These servers are understood to be used as part of SITA’s provision of passenger processing services, which it supplies to airlines across the globe.

According to the IT provider, the SITA data breach was quickly contained, and the affected airlines were contacted immediately. In response, airlines have notified customers of the breach directly.

While British Airways has assured customers that their financial information and passwords have not been affected, they have suggested that some passenger names and flight preferences may have been exposed. It is believed that the breach affected frequent flyers, and only made names, tier statuses and membership numbers vulnerable to unauthorised access.

Potential implications of the data breach

It has been said that the SITA breach does not pose significant security risks to its victims, and it is believed that there is a low chance of financial loss given the nature of the data exposed. However, it is worrying that a cyberattack of this scale has occurred, and we know all too well about how damaging even a seemingly “small” breach can be.

This incident raises serious questions about the security of SITA’s systems. The company is said to be receiving advice from cybersecurity experts, which will hopefully allow it to eliminate any problems that could cause further breaches.

We have taken on claims for several travel data breaches over the years, and we have already been approached by victims of the SITA cyberattack from both our BA clients and from new clients. Our British Airways group action could lead to thousands of pounds in compensation for each claimant.

Anyone affected by a travel data breach can contact us for advice on their potential claim now. For eligible clients, we are prepared to offer No Win, No Fee legal representation.

Travel data breaches and our group action claims

The SITA data breach is representative of a wider data protection problem across the travel industry. It seems that many travel companies have yet to rise to the challenge of tackling the increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks that threaten them.

Your Lawyers – The Data Leak Lawyers – are specialists in data protection law. We fight to hold data controllers accountable for their failure to protect personal information through compensation claims and group action lawsuits.

We currently sit on the Steering Committee for the group action against British Airways, which is the first GDPR Group Litigation Order in England and Wales. We have the expertise to bring your data breach claim to fruition – contact us today for free, no-obligation advice on your potential compensation claim.

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