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Missing air miles? Blame hackers that breached US Airways systems

US Airways Group says that hackers have breached its systems and had fun playing around with your loyalty points.
Written by Charlie Osborne, Contributing Writer

US Airways Group has admitted to becoming the latest travel industry victim of hackers.

According to Skift, the carrier's Dividend Miles frequent-flier program system experienced a security breach where 7,700 accounts were compromised. Once hackers entered the system and played around with the loyalty program, a "very limited" number of users lost mileage credits. In addition, the last four digits of debit cards connected to accounts were also lifted.

US Airways does not believe full credit card details were stolen.

As a result, the compromised accounts have been temporarily deactivated, and as expected, U.S. law enforcement agencies are on the case. The security breach was discovered July 12.

According to the company's website, frequent flyer miles can be exchanged for travel upgrades, hotel stays, magazine subscriptions and car rental, among other services. Industry website FrequentFlyerServices.com says that there are over 30 million members of the scheme.

The attack no doubt had a financial incentive, but considering the relatively small number of accounts that were breached, it may have also have taken place in order to cause disruption or to affect the company's reputation.

US Airways is on track to merge with bankrupt carrier American Airlines. Recently, American came under fire after defending the soon-to-depart CEO's $20 million severance package.

Via: Skift

Image credit: CNET

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com

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