Icon: enlarge
Lufthansa aircraft: The company speaks of a "data incident"
Photo: Kai Pfaffenbach / REUTERS
Lufthansa calls it a "data incident": Unknown persons accessed a large amount of customer data in an attack on the aviation IT service provider Sita.
According to a Lufthansa spokesman, around 1.35 million customers are affected by the frequent flyer program "Miles and More" alone.
Only information about the service card number, the status level and, in some cases, the name was tapped, but no passwords, e-mail addresses or other personal customer data.
Affected customers were informed by email.
According to Lufthansa, the perpetrators obtained the data of the "Miles and More" customers via an Asian partner airline of the Star Alliance.
"In the incident, hackers succeeded in breaking into a reservation system and stealing customer data from Star Alliance partners," said the mail to those affected.
Sita publicly confirmed the incident on Thursday.
The company said that it reacted quickly to the allegedly sophisticated attack and took targeted measures to contain it.
The process will be further investigated.
Passengers should contact their airlines for more information.
Lufthansa, on the other hand, announced that the passengers did not need to be active.
Sita claims to be the world's leading specialist in IT and communication in air traffic.
The company works for almost the entire industry.
Icon: The mirror
pbe / dpa
