Australian airline Qantas hit by massive cyberattack
Australian airline Qantas said Wednesday it was investigating a "significant" cyberattack, after hackers infiltrated a system containing sensitive data on six million customers.
Qantas said hackers had targeted one of its customer contact centres, breaching a computer system used by a third party.
They had access to sensitive information such as customer names, email addresses, phone numbers and birthdays, the blue-chip Australian company said.
"There are 6 million customers that have service records in this platform," the company said in a statement. "We are continuing to investigate the proportion of the data that has been stolen, though we expect it will be significant."
Credit card details and passport numbers were not kept in the system, Qantas added.
"There is no impact to Qantas' operations or the safety of the airline."
Chief executive Vanessa Hudson said Qantas had notified Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator.
"We sincerely apologize to our customers and we recognize the uncertainty this will cause," she said. "Our customers trust us with their personal information and we take that responsibility seriously."
Qantas apologized in 2024 after a glitch with its mobile app exposed some passengers' names and travel details.
A string of major cyberattacks have in recent years raised concerns about the protection of Australians' personal data.
Major ports handling 40 percent of Australia's freight trade ground to a halt in 2023 after hackers infiltrated computers belonging to operator DP World.
Russia-based hackers in 2022 breached one of Australia's largest private health insurers, accessing the data of more than nine million current and former customers.
The same year telecom company Optus suffered a data breach of similar magnitude in which the personal details of up to 9.8 million people were accessed.
© 2025 AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nikkei Asia
an hour ago
- Nikkei Asia
Mitsubishi Gas Chemical to buy into Aussie hydrogen miner
Energy Toyota and Eneos unit will also invest in startup Gold Hydrogen Mitsubishi Gas Chemical hopes to use natural hydrogen to produce methanol from carbon dioxide and waste. © Reuters ARATA SHIGENO TOKYO -- Mitsubishi Gas Chemical will invest in an Australian startup that mines underground hydrogen, looking to use the gas for environmentally friendlier methanol production, the Japanese company announced Thursday. The investment will be made in Gold Hydrogen, which has discovered natural, or underground, hydrogen in the state of South Australia. The startup aims to mine the hydrogen commercially.
Asahi Shimbun
7 hours ago
- Asahi Shimbun
Quake rumor in Hong Kong forces canceling of Japan flights
Tottori Governor Shinji Hirai, left, holds an online meeting with Hiroki Ito, right side on screen, general manager of Hong Kong-based Greater Bay Airlines' Japan office, at the Tottori prefectural government's office in Tottori on July 2. (Yoshihiro Tomita) TOTTORI—An unfounded rumor of an impending major earthquake in Japan has forced international flights between Yonago Kitaro Airport in Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture, and Hong Kong to be suspended at the end of August. The rumor that 'a major disaster will occur in Japan in July' has been spreading on social media and by other means in Hong Kong. As a result, the number of passengers on the route has plummeted since May. A representative of Hong Kong-based Greater Bay Airlines, the operator of the flights, said the rumor triggered the decision to ground the service. Hiroki Ito, general manager of the airline's Japan office, met online with Tottori Governor Shinji Hirai on July 2 and reported the decision to suspend operations. 'The trend of voluntary restraint on travel from Hong Kong to Japan has become more pronounced since the latter half of May and we are now below the break-even point,' Ito said. 'We will suspend operations for the time being and hope to resume when the situation improves.' Hirai said, 'I hope that we can continue to keep the pipeline open for discussions and communication in the future.' Regular flights between Yonago and Hong Kong had been suspended since February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The scheduled route had just resumed after an interval of nearly five years when Greater Bay Airlines began service in October 2024. Currently, three flights per week are in operation. The seat utilization rate had been hovering around 60 percent every month, but in May this year, the rate was 43.3 percent, a sharp drop from 58.7 percent in April. The prefectural government believed that this was due to the spread of a rumor triggered by a Japanese manga in Hong Kong. According to Greater Bay Airlines, seat utilization in June is also expected to be around 40 percent. In May, the airline reduced the number of scheduled flights between Hong Kong and Sendai and Hong Kong and Tokushima.
The Diplomat
10 hours ago
- The Diplomat
Trump Says US and Vietnam Have Reached an Agreement on Tariffs
The United States and Vietnam have struck a trade agreement that sets a tariff of 20 percent tariffs on Vietnamese exports to the U.S., President Donald Trump announced yesterday, reducing tensions between the two nations days before a harsher tariff was set to go into effect. In a post on Truth social, Trump said that the deal would involve a 20 percent tariff 'on any and all goods' exported to the U.S., while transhipped goods – those that pass through Vietnam to circumvent steeper trade barriers – would be hit with a 40 percent tariff. This is considerably lower than the 46 percent rate levied on Vietnam by Trump during his announcement of the sweeping 'reciprocal tariffs' on April 2. 'It is my Great Honor to announce that I have just made a Trade Deal with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam after speaking with To Lam, the Highly Respected General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam,' Trump wrote. He added that Vietnam had agreed to lower its tariffs on all U.S. imports to zero, something that Trump said would benefit the U.S. car industry in particular. 'It is my opinion that the SUV or, as it is sometimes referred to, Large Engine Vehicle, which does so well in the United States, will be a wonderful addition to the various product lines within Vietnam,' Trump said. The deal was also confirmed by Vietnamese state media, which reported that on a call that Lam held with Trump yesterday, the two leaders 'welcomed the agreement reached by the two countries' negotiating teams on the Joint Vietnam-United States Statement on a Fair, Balanced, and Reciprocal Trade Agreement Framework.' According to one report, Trump 'affirmed that the U.S. would significantly reduce reciprocal tariffs on many of Vietnam's export items and would continue to work with Vietnam to address obstacles affecting bilateral trade relations, particularly in areas prioritized by both sides.' Lam also proposed that the U.S. 'soon recognize Vietnam as a market economy and lift export restrictions on certain high-tech products,' and extended an invitation for Trump to visit Vietnam. The announcement, which sent the shares of Nike and other Vietnam-based apparel makers climbing, comes just days before a July 9 deadline that Trump set to resolve negotiations before the imposition of the reciprocal tariffs, including the 46 percent tariff on Vietnamese goods. The tariff threatened to throttle the trade between the U.S. and Vietnam, which has grown by leaps and bounds since the first Trump administration. Indeed, Vietnam was one of the great winners of Trump's first 'trade war' with China. As multinational firms set up factories in Vietnam to reduce their reliance on China as a manufacturing base, the country increased its export share to the U.S. in all categories of products. However, this has seen Vietnam's trade surplus grow rapidly, from $38.3 billion in 2017 to $123.5 billion last year. This has attracted the attention of Trump's hawkish trade advisors, who say that the deficit has been pumped up by the use of Vietnam as a transshipment point for Chinese goods seeking to avoid previous U.S. tariffs. According to some reports, this represents both outright fraud – the slapping of 'Made in Vietnam' labels on Chinese-made products – and the establishment by Chinese companies of factories in Vietnam. Exactly how prevalent the issue is remains a subject of dispute, but on Fox News in April, Trump's hawkish trade adviser Peter Navarro accused Vietnam of being 'essentially a colony of communist China.' During the recent tariff negotiations, Vietnam duly pledged to address the issue. If confirmed, the terms of the agreement are set to significantly increase the price of the garments, electronics, and other goods that Vietnam exports to the U.S. However, Hanoi will likely be satisfied with this outcome, given the worst-case scenario. An earlier report by Reuters report suggested that Vietnam is hoping to get the 46 percent tariff 'reduced to a range of 22 percent to 28 percent, if not lower.' This may depend on whether there are any other unpublicized elements to the deal. Last month, Reuters news agency reported that U.S. trade negotiators had sent a list of 'tough' requests to Vietnam that would force the country to 'cut its reliance on Chinese industrial goods imports,' which have spiked in line with the rise in Vietnamese exports to the U.S. According to the report, the Trump administration 'wants Vietnam-based factories to reduce their use of materials and components from China and is asking the country to control more carefully its production and supply chains.' It also remains unclear whether the U.S. will agree to Lam's requests for the United States to recognize it as a market economy – a step that the Biden administration declined to take last year – and remove restrictions on the exports of high-tech products to the country. In the immediate term, the deal seems set to stabilize the relationship between Vietnam and the U.S., which has grown in recent years in large part due to a shared concern for China's rising power. The longer-term impacts are harder to guess. It is clear that Hanoi was stung by the announcement of the 46 percent tariff, one of the highest rates in the world, and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that it 'did not reflect the strong bilateral relations between the two nations.' Despite this compromise, Vietnamese leaders will likely continue their efforts, telegraphed shortly after the April 2 tariff announcement, to diversify the country's export markets. Given the unpredictability of U.S. policy over the past few administrations, it is wise to cushion themselves against a future spasm of protectionism.
