Former NSA hacker warns of cyberattacks targeting airlines
Former NSA hacker David Kennedy joins 'Mornings with Maria' to discuss hacking group 'Scattered Spider' targeting the airline industry ahead of the July 4th weekend and the CIA declassifying a review of the 2016 Russia election interference probe.
Australia's Qantas Airways said that it was one of several companies whose customer data was posted online following a July cyber incident that impacted millions of customers.
The major airline said in a statement that it's working with cybersecurity experts to investigate what data was part of the release. The airline also said it has a court order in place to prevent the stolen data from being accessed, viewed, released, used, transmitted or published by anyone, including third parties.
The airline implemented additional security measures such as increased training across its teams and strengthened system monitoring and detection ever since it detected "unusual activity" on a third-party platform used by a Qantas airline contact center, which holds service records for 6 million people, in July.
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After discovering the incident, the airline issued concerns that a "significant" amount of customer data was stolen. It also alerted customers about what specific personal data could have been impacted.
A Qantas Airbus A330 aircraft lands. (Qantas)
During an initial review, the airline discovered that some customers’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates and frequent flyer numbers were impacted.
However, the airline confirmed following that review that credit card details, personal financial information and passport details are not held in this system. Frequent flyer accounts, passwords, PINs and log-in details weren't impacted.
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Qantas said on Sunday that there has been no change to this information.
The company said it will continue to provide updates on its website and through its customer support line, where it says customers have ongoing access to specialist identity protection services.
Qantas Airways signage at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia. (Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The July cyberattack on Quantas comes days after U.S. officials warned that a notorious cybercriminal group was targeting the airline sector.
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The FBI posted on X last week that the cybercrime group "Scattered Spider" relies on "social engineering techniques, often impersonating employees or contractors to deceive IT help desks" to grant access to systems and steal sensitive data for extortion.
The group frequently involves methods to bypass multifactor authentication (MFA), such as convincing help desk services to add unauthorized MFA devices to compromised accounts.
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"They target large corporations and their third-party IT providers, which means anyone in the airline ecosystem, including trusted vendors and contractors, could be at risk," the FBI wrote.
