Lufthansa boss taps into his own IT security loophole - warning apparently ignored
Created: 09/26/2022, 09:16
By: Kathrin Reikowski
Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr stands in front of a Lufthansa machine (symbolic image) © Hannes P. Albert/dpa/archive image
Carsten Spohr, head of Lufthansa, apparently left his boarding pass where his cell phone number and email address were stolen.
Frankfurt am Main - “We recommend our passengers to be very careful with their flight documents.
They are to be treated like cash," a Lufthansa spokesman told
Der Spiegel.
The CEO apparently did not follow this recommendation - and had important data such as his e-mail address and cell phone number stolen, as reported by
Spiegel
.
The reason for the data theft is a loophole known to the company: Strangers can gain access to this data via a QR code on the boarding pass.
Anyone who does not pay attention to the boarding pass is therefore at risk.
This is how Lufthansa boss Spohr lost his data
And this is what the loophole looks like: Because the service card numbers of frequent flyers are also noted on the boarding pass, it is easy to gain access to sensitive data, according to the
Spiegel research
.
If you enter the passenger's surname in addition to the frequent flyer number on the Lufthansa website, you can find out, among other things, which booking is pending - and even make other entries.
Lufthansa sees no security risk in the IT loophole
The cell phone number and e-mail address are also part of the IT loophole, provided the customer has stored them.
That was apparently the case with Carsten Spohr.
According to
Spiegel
, the Lufthansa spokesman does not see a security risk.
Nevertheless, they are working with a security company to improve the standards.
Most recently, Lufthansa made the headlines due to massive strikes.
According to Spohr, Lufthansa wants to grow primarily outside of Germany during the crisis.
(cat)