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Akasa Air, India's newest addition to the aviation industry, has suffered from a data breach as it's passenger database was hacked and personal details of several passengers was exposed.
For the unversed, Akasa Air is India's newest low-cost airline which began its operations on 7th August, 2022.
India's Big Bull, late Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala was an investor in the company. He held over 46% stake in the company for a sum of roughly $35 million and was the biggest shareholder in the airline.
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The company reported the breach to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in). According to the statement by the company, unauthorized individuals gained access due to a temporary technical configuration error in the login and sign-up service. Such individuals were able to access the names, genders, email addresses and phone numbers of the passengers. However, these individuals were unable to gain access to travel history & payment details as such details remained uncompromised.
"On being made aware of this, we immediately stopped this unauthorised access by completely shutting down the associated functional elements of our system. Subsequently, having added additional controls to address this situation, we have resumed our login and sign-up services" the company said.
The company also stated that due to such illegal access, personal data of passengers was compromised and that such people were prone to phishing attempts. The company has advised passengers to exercise caution against such attacks.
“At Akasa Air, system security and protection of customer information is paramount, and our focus is to always provide a secure and reliable customer experience. While extensive protocols are in place to prevent incidents of such nature, we have undertaken additional measures to ensure that the security of all our systems is even further enhanced. We will continue to maintain our robust security protocols, engaging wherever applicable, with partners, researchers, and security experts from whom we can benefit to strengthen our systems,” said Anand Srinivasan, Co-Founder and CIO at Akasa Air.
The company said that it self-reported the matter to CERT-in & that even though extensive protocols regarding the matter were in place, additional reviews have been undertaken to enhance the security of it's systems even further.
Indian airlines have recently faced such attacks frequently. Last year, Air India's system was hacked in a similar manner which compromised the information of nearly 4.5 million passengers. In May this year, Spicejet was the victim of a ransomware attack which resulted in the delay of several flights, compromised several systems and forced the airlines to delay it's financial results.
Akasa Air launched its first maiden flight on 7th August, 2022, from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. The airline is a growing company and there has been no talk of launching its IPO yet.
Article by Aman Agarwal.
This story is brought to you in association with Jobaaj.com
