easyJet, a British Airline, is said to be hacked with a highly sophisticated source. The breach has managed to gain access to data such as email addresses and travel details of about 9 million easyJet customers. The severity of the breach intensified with threat actors being able to access credit card details of approximately 2,208 customers.

Details about the breach

Until now, easyJet has not spoken about facts that made the company aware of the cyberattack. Neither has it shared any details related to the forensic investigation or the breach date.

Even though the airline made efforts and notified customers who were impacted, the actual news about the breach was buried in a press release dated May 19, 2020, on the consumer-facing website.

The release briefly stated, “We take issues of security extremely seriously and continue to invest to further enhance our security environment.”

After learning about the attack, the airline appointed forensic experts to investigate the matter and simultaneously notified the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) and the British government’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

What experts say

Ilia Kolochenko, Founder and CEO, ImmuniWeb, mentioned that the current information available is not enough to get to the origin and potential aftereffects of the attack. She added, “It will likely be difficult to avoid financial penalties under the GDPR, but depending on the negligence involved in the cause of the incident, the fine may be rather nominal than exemplary punitive.”

Tim Sadler, CEO, Tessian, said that easyJet customers are now more vulnerable to phishing scams post this attack; hence they should be more careful about the emails they receive, especially from the airline. He added, it is not easy to gauge the amount of future damage.

Johan Lundgren, CEO, easyJet, apologized to his customers about the hacking episode and assured its customers about how the company takes cybersecurity very seriously.

On the business front, the airline has a general shareholder meeting scheduled for May 22, 2020.

Om May 19, 2020, the easyJet trading on OTCMKTS experienced a dip by 0.22%, closing at USD 6.80.