Budget airline carrier EasyJet has fallen victim to a hack that exposed the personal details of nine million customers.
In a statement released today, the company admitted that "highly sophisticated" hackers had breached its systems, accessing email addresses and travel details held by the organisation. A "very small subset of users" – up to 2,208 – also had their credit card details exposed.
EasyJet says it has seen "no evidence" that the stolen data has been misused, but is asking customers to be cautious of any unsolicited communications, particularly those purporting to come from EasyJet or EasyJet Holidays.
EasyJet, which has been forced to ground its flights amid the coronavirus pandemic, has yet to confirm when the incident was identified nor how long it lasted.
Commenting on the data breach, EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said: “We take the cyber security of our system very seriously and have robust security measures in place to protect our customers’ personal information. However, this is an evolving threat as cyber attackers get ever more sophisticated.
“Since we became aware of the incident, it has become clear that owing to COVID-19 there is heightened concern about personal data being used for online scams. As a result, and on the recommendation of the ICO, we are contacting those customers whose travel information was accessed and we are advising them to be extra vigilant, particularly if they receive unsolicited communications.
“We would like to apologise to those customers who have been affected by this incident.”
EasyJet, which will contact customers affected by the cyber security incident by 26 May, says it has notified the the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) about the breach and has "closed off this unauthorised access to its systems".
