American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have started informing thousands of pilots that their personal information was compromised in a data breach at Pilot Credentials.
A portal managing pilot and cadet recruitment applications on behalf of various airlines, Pilot Credentials informed both companies on May 3 that it had suffered a cyberattack resulting in the compromise of files on its systems.
The vendor was breached on or around April 30 and the attackers obtained files containing the personal information of pilot and cadet applicants.
The compromised information includes names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, Airman Certificate numbers, and passport and other ID numbers.
Both airlines say they moved pilot applications to internal portals managed by the airlines themselves.
American Airlines and Southwest Airlines say that they have no evidence that the exposed information has been misused. However, stolen personal data is typically sold or shared on underground cybercrime websites and may be used in other types of attacks.
The airlines also pointed out that the attack targeted the vendor’s systems only and that neither American Airlines nor Southwest Airlines systems or networks were compromised.
American Airlines informed the Maine Attorney General’s Office that more than 5,700 individuals were impacted by the data breach. Southwest Airlines said that just over 3,000 were impacted.
In September last year, American Airlines disclosed a data breach after the email account of an employee was used in phishing attacks. The company said at the time that the personal information of multiple employees was eventually compromised in the attack.
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