The content is accurate at the time of publication and is subject to change.
Travelers who bought tickets with British Airways may want to keep an eye on their credit card and debit card statements because they were hit by cyber thieves. The hack occurred from August 21, 2018, through September 5, 2018, and was isolated to their website, ba.com, and their mobile app. It is estimated that 380,000 payments may have been compromised before the incident was discovered.
The stolen information includes credit card and debit card numbers, expiration dates and CVV codes, along with names, billing addresses, and email addresses. That said individuals travel details, passport information and telephone numbers do not appear to have been affected by the theft.
According to British Airways if people paid via Apple Pay or PayPal their data was not affected by the breach. And Executive Club accounts were not affected by the incident. On the other hand, individuals who did pay with a saved credit or debit card may have had their information stolen.
Be on the lookout
On their website, British Airways has posted information for people who may have been affected by the breach. They suggest that people keep an eye out for Phishing scams, and to help stop people from being victimized by these scams, they want people to know that they will not be reaching out to their customers asking for payment card information. If people receive those kinds of inquiries they suggest reaching out to the authorities to file a report.
They have posted information on their website to help people determine if an email is really from British Airways.
They also suggest that individuals who believe their data may have been hacked reach out to their bank or credit card provider to get advice on how to proceed.
Covered for fraudulent activity
Will people be financially responsible for damage done to their financial lives due to these cyber thieves? According to the British Airways website, the answer is no. "Any customer who made a booking between 22:58 BST August 21, 2018, and 21:45 BST September 5, 2018, will be reimbursed for any fraudulent activity on their accounts as a direct result of the data theft and we shall advise the process for this in due course."
They will also be providing these folks with a year with a credit rating monitoring service if they are worried that their credit rating will be compromised by this hack.
For more information, people can check out the webpage they set up to provide information to their customers about this incident.