NEW DELHI: In less than a month after it began its operation, Akasa Air, India’s newest airline, faced a data breach. In a statement on Sunday, the airline said that a temporary technical configuration error related to their login and sign-up service was reported to them on Thursday August 25, 2022.
As a result of this configuration error, some Akasa Air registered user information limited to names, gender, email addresses and phone numbers may have been viewed by unauthorized individuals, the statement added. Akasa, however, is sure that aside from the above details, no travel-related information, travel records or payment information was compromised.
This is a setback for the airline given it made its first commercial flight on August 7 and has promised to provide a world-class service. Data breaches, according to various cyber security experts, impact the credibility of a firm as consumers in recent times have become very sensitive about their privacy being protected.
Akasa said that they immediately stopped this unauthorised access by completely shutting down the associated functional elements of their system. Subsequently, having added additional controls to address this situation, we have resumed our login and sign-up services, it added.
Akasa also self-reported the incident to CERT-In, the government authorised nodal agency tasked to deal with incidents of this nature. We have also notified the affected users and have advised users to be conscious of possible phishing attempts.
Anand Srinivasan, Co-Founder and Chief Information Officer at Akasa Air , said “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.”
This is not the first time when an airline has faced a data breach. Indian carriers like IndiGo, Air India and SpiceJet have also seen their database being hacked in the last few years.