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SINGAPORE: Around 580,000 KrisFlyer and PPS members have been affected by a data security breach, Singapore Airlines (SIA) said on Thursday (March 4).
The data breach involves the servers of the passenger service system of SITA, an air transport information technology company.
“While SIA is not a SITA PSS customer, this SITA PSS server violation has affected some members of KrisFlyer and PPS,” said the national operator.
All Star Alliance member airlines provide a restricted set of frequent flyer program data to the alliance, which is then sent to other member airlines to reside in their respective passenger service systems.
SIA said this data transfer is necessary to enable verification of membership level status and to grant member airline customers the relevant benefits while traveling.
One of the Star Alliance member airlines is a customer of SITA PSS. As a result, SITA has access to the restricted set of frequent flyer program data for all 26 Star Alliance member airlines, including Singapore Airlines.
“The information involved is limited to the membership number and tier status and in some cases the membership name, as this is the full scope of frequent flyer data that Singapore Airlines shares with other Star member airlines Alliance for this data transfer, “SIA said.
SIA added that this data breach does not specifically involve KrisFlyer and PPS members’ passwords, credit card information, and other customer data, such as itineraries, reservations, ticketing, passport numbers, and email addresses. .
Such information is not shared with other Star Alliance member airlines for this data transfer, the airline said.
SIA said none of its IT systems have been affected by the breach and that they are reaching out to all KrisFlyer and PPS members to inform them of the incident.
“The protection of our customers’ personal data is of the utmost importance to Singapore Airlines, and we sincerely regret the incident and apologize for the inconvenience caused.”
“VERY SOPHISTICATED ATTACK”
SITA confirmed in a separate statement that it was a “victim of a cyberattack” that led to the data security incident.
After confirming the severity of the incident on February 24, SITA said it took immediate steps to contact affected SITA passenger service system customers and all related organizations.
“We recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns about security threats and, at the same time, cybercriminals have become more sophisticated and active. This was a very sophisticated attack, ”he said.
SITA added that the matter remains under ongoing investigation by its security incident response team with the support of “leading external cybersecurity experts.”
