Air Canada Data Breach causes app meltdown as 1.7 million users scramble to change passwords.Airline confirms data breach involving 20,000 mobile app accounts. Air Canada has confirmed a data breach on its mobile app, resulting in the loss of 20,000 user records. Names, phone numbers and passport numbers are among the stolen data. A potential treasure trove for identity thieves. 1.7 million Air Canada customers discovered overnight that they could no longer use the company’s web app. The site was overwhelmed by thousands of consumers frantically trying to change their passwords. Tech expert Graham Williams commented:
…when you think about what you’re submitting to a major corporation when it’s sensitive things like your passport number [or] your birthday, we have to have some level of trust here. Breaches are going to happen, but there’s a couple of things you can do with this particular issue, because information was saved to your account. This is information that you don’t necessarily need to save to your account. Things like your social insurance number, your credit card number and your passport number don’t need to be saved to your account – you’re doing it because it’s convenient.
Williams advises consumers to simply enter passport numbers and credit card details when a transaction takes place. These details do not need to be saved to your account.
When making a transaction look for the lock in the upper left-hand corner [of your browser] – that’s the secure socket layer. Basically it’s saying this communication between you and the server is secure for this one time.
Air Canada urges customers to monitor their credit card activity and immediately contact their banks if they detect anything unusual. However, the airline emphasised that all credit card information is encrypted and is therefore protected.
Air Canada Data Breach ~ another hack-attack
Air Canada joins a number of other airlines that have suffered data breaches in recent months. Delta admitted earlier in the year that customer data was stolen following a security lapse at one of its service providers. Last year Virgin admitted that a hacker broke into its internal network, which required a hard-reset of employee passwords. So, does the Air Canada data breach herald more cyber attacks on major corporations, as fraudsters seek out valuable data? Editor’s comment: Do we give away personal information too freely? – especially when our lives are being exposed to potential fraudsters! Tell us what you think in the comment box below. Source: Global News CanadaClick for more stories like this.
