British Airways is again making headlines for all the wrong reasons. This time it is an IT breach where sensitive transactions data has been stolen by hackers. This story broke late last night, local time and there are new developments trickling in as I write this piece.
This new breach has compromised personal and financial data of about 380,000 transactions made on BA’s website and their app between August 21 and September 5, 2018. Information stolen include credit card details, email IDs and physical addresses. Travel details and passport information remain untouched. The breach is affecting people who may have booked or changed a ticket on the phone or via the British Airways hacked website.
The airline has been swift with their response, getting in touch with customers who might be affected by the hack. If you’ve booked on ba.com on the app during the affected period, you should have received an email notifying you about the breach. Currently, both the platforms have been secured and they are running as normal.
What to do if you think your data might be compromised? Call up your bank and block your credit for starters. If you see any unauthorized transaction made already, immediately inform your bank. Most credit cards today come with some sort of fraud protection. Since CVV numbers have been taken too, this may hit you months down the line as well
Bottomline
Cybercrime comes with its own set of challenges, and money is the usual motive. Take adequate care right now to ensure that you don’t get caught up in a mess with your bank later due to the hacking of British Airways. Prevention is better than cure afterall.
Have you heard from British Airways? What is your sense of the magnitude of the problem? Have you secured your BA account and credit card after?
I wasn’t able to login to my BA account as it was saying wrong password not sure whether it was because of this that BA reset all the passwords. I had to click on forgot password to get into my account.
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I’m not sure I agree with their official timeline. I booked a BA flight to Paris on August 19th through the BA app. On August 21st $2000 worth of unauthorised purchases had been put on my BA Visa card. The card has now been cancelled but I’m extremely wary about using it through the BA site again.