National carrier Air India has suspended its entire passenger loyalty rewards programme after it was discovered that the programme was hacked into, administrator control taken over and points worth Rs 16 lakh of air travel miles stolen last week. A probe by the Delhi police has revealed that this could have been avoided of the airline had carried out periodic anti-hacking drills as per international air transport guidelines. Senior Air India officials questioned by the police said that the programme called Flying Returns had 1, 95,000 frequent flyer accounts, but it was unclear how many passengers were actually affected.
One airline staffer estimated the number to be 20. Delhi police chief Alok Verma told Mirror that airlines should carry out mock drills to have better control over such situations. "Just like an anti-hijack or bomb squad drill, there should also be a cyber-protection and invasion drill," Verma said. Alarmed senior civil aviation ministry officials have asked Indian carriers to carry out such drills at regular intervals. "Our understanding is that while all the airlines have strong firewalls they do not test it for breach points frequently.
29/06/16 Aditya Anand/Ahmedabad Mirror
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One airline staffer estimated the number to be 20. Delhi police chief Alok Verma told Mirror that airlines should carry out mock drills to have better control over such situations. "Just like an anti-hijack or bomb squad drill, there should also be a cyber-protection and invasion drill," Verma said. Alarmed senior civil aviation ministry officials have asked Indian carriers to carry out such drills at regular intervals. "Our understanding is that while all the airlines have strong firewalls they do not test it for breach points frequently.
29/06/16 Aditya Anand/Ahmedabad Mirror
