Australia: Over five million customers impacted by Qantas cyber attack

Sydney, July 9
Australian airline Qantas has confirmed that over five million customers were impacted by a cyberattack in late June.

The Australian airline said in a statement on Wednesday that a forensic analysis found that customer records of 5.7 million people were exposed in the June 30 attack on a third-party system used by an offshore call center.

Of those 5.7 million customers' records, it said that 2.8 million contained names, email addresses and Qantas frequent flyer numbers and an additional 1.2 million contained only names and email addresses.

The remaining 1.7 million had more data in the compromised system, including addresses, birthdates, phone numbers and meal preferences.

Qantas Group chief executive Vanessa Hudson said that the airline on Wednesday began reaching out to customers to notify them of the specific personal data fields that were held in the compromised system, reported Xinhua news agency.

"Since the incident, we have put in place a number of additional cybersecurity measures to further protect our customers' data, and are continuing to review what happened," said Vanessa Hudson.

The Qantas airline disclosed the attack on July 2 and on Monday said it had been contacted by a hacker claiming responsibility.

Hudson said on Wednesday that Qantas is in constant contact with the National Cyber Security Coordinator, Australian Cyber Security Center and the Australian Federal Police in relation to the incident.

Customers have been advised to remain alert, particularly with emails, phone calls and messages where the sender or caller claims to be from Qantas.

Qantas said that none of the personal data stolen in the attack has been released and that it is continuing to actively monitor with the support of specialist cybersecurity experts.