Scandal: Cyber-attack on EasyJet exposes data on 9 million customers

The British low-cost airline has confirmed a cyber attack that has exposed the data of 9 million customers. The “highly sophisticated” attack has allowed hackers to access email addresses, travel details and even the banking details of more than 2,000 people.

EasyJet has reported in a statement that a “highly sophisticated” cyber attack has allowed hackers to access the email addresses and other personal data of nearly 9 million customers, who will be contacted in the coming days by the airline which, for the moment, has no evidence that they have been exploited.

Apart from email addresses and passenger travel details, the company explains that the bank details of 2,208 people have been compromised.

The company has apologized to those affected through Johan Lundgren, its CEO, who has stressed that it takes the cyber security of systems very seriously, but that threats are constantly evolving as cyber attackers become more sophisticated.

On the other hand, he has asked affected customers to be very vigilant especially if they receive strange e-mails and assured that the airline will continue to “invest in protecting its customers, its systems and its data”.
In general, the firm recommends everyone to protect devices with a strong security solution and to apply operating system and application updates as soon as they are available. In addition, it reminds users to use unique and complex passwords on all their online accounts and to take advantage of two-factor or two-step authentication as long as it is provided by the provider.

EasyJet hacking compensation:

If you were one of the many EasyJet customers who received an email from the airline, you might be eligible for an EastJet compensation.
Law firm PGMBM has issued a class action claim on behalf of airline travellers impacted by the data breach.
The law firm estimates that each affected person may be able to claim up to £2000 in compensation. As nine million EasyJet customers are thought to have had their data exposed by the security breach, the action has a potential liability of £18 billion.

And, according to PGMBM, you don’t have to provide any evidence that you have lost any money to claim compensation:

“Under Article 82 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU-GDPR) you have a right to compensation for inconvenience, distress, annoyance and loss of control of your data.”

You may need to check your junk or spam email and the email subject probably started with
“Cyber Security Incident” or “Criminal Theft of Customer Data, more information”

More problems for Easyjet customers

Some passengers have tried to cancel the easyJet account. The airline are asking them to upload a photo of themselves!!. Why would they need this? The customers didn’t send a photo to open an account. Email to EasyJet asking them to delete the account but no results.
Obviously loyalty counts for nothing.

Other customers since getting the email from easyJet have been inundated with phone calls from every part of the world.

 

EasyJet probaly will be subject to an investigation by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) who are the UK authority on data protection. There will also be a large fine forthcoming. The recent British Airways data breach was 500,000 customer’s details and they were fined over £180 million.
The EasyJet breach affects some 9 million customers, so we expect there’ll be a very big fine coming that will focus the minds at EasyJet Head Quarters.