Hacker steals N6.7 million worth of frequent miles from airline

onnaedo

June 23, 2016 5:10 PM

Though Air India has 195,000 accounts in its frequent-flyer programme, the full extent of the hack remains unknown.

___5186432___https:______static.pulse.com.gh___webservice___escenic___binary___5186432___2016___6___23___18___Air-India

It's not a good day to have frequent-flier miles with Air India as unidentified hackers broke into at least 20 accounts in the airline's frequent-flyer programme and redeemed miles worth Rs 1.6 million (about N6.7 million).

According to Delhi Police, hackers created 20 email IDs to divert the reward points earned by passengers.

It is now tracking the people whose tickets have been booked using the stolen flyer miles to find the culprits.

Meanwhile, there are indications that the hack could be a joint sting between former Air India employees who knew about the loopholes in the system and approved the tickets, a travel agency and the hackers.

This suspicion was raised by the police because many of the tickets were purchased using invalid ID proof and under the same signature.

Hacking airline systems is a challenge airlines constantly struggle with - in 2015, British Airways was affected by a large-scale hack.

Also, in 2014 hackers booked free trips and upgrades using stolen customer usernames and passwords from American Airlines and United Airlines frequent flyer programmes.

onnaedo