• Air India flight 185 arrives from New Delhi, narrowly beating the cut-off after Canada's government temporarily barred passenger flights from India

Air India flight 185 arrives from New Delhi, narrowly beating the cut-off after Canada's government temporarily barred passenger flights from India (Photo : REUTERS/Jennifer Gauthier)

 India's national airline Air India said on Friday a cyber attack on its data processor in February affected about 4.5 million passengers around the world.

Air India, a member of global airlines consortium Star Alliance, said the breach involved personal data, such as name, contact, passport, ticket and credit card details, registered between Aug. 26, 2011 and Feb. 20, 2021. (https://bit.ly/3hL9z5A)

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Earlier in March, the airline said its data processor, SITA PSS (Passenger Service System), had informed about a cyber attack it was subjected to in the last week of February.

SITA serves the Star Alliance of airlines including Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and United. (https://bit.ly/3bJyPVX)

Last year British Airways incurred a 20 million pound fine after failing to protect data that left more than 400,000 of its customers' details the subject of a 2018 cyber attack. Other major cyber incidents in the recent past include another London-listed airline, easyJet, which last year said hackers had accessed the email and travel details of around 9 million customers.