Australian airline Qantas says hit by 'significant' cyberattack
SYDNEY (AFP)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."Qantas previously apologised in 2024 after a glitch with its mobile app exposed some passengers' names and travel details.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.
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