Names, dates of birth, phone numbers among leaked data; financial information unaffected

A Jin Air passenger aircraft [Jin Air]
A Jin Air passenger aircraft [Jin Air]

Jin Air suffered an external cyberattack that exposed the personal data of 1,454 members. The leaked information includes names, dates of birth and mobile phone numbers, and the airline has moved to block the attack vector and implement security measures to prevent further damage.

Jin Air announced on its website Thursday that it had detected signs of unauthorized external access to its internal systems and confirmed that the personal information of 1,454 members had been compromised.

The company said the attack targeted its member information inquiry application programming interface (API). After confirming the breach Wednesday, Jin Air completed protective measures including blocking the internet protocol (IP) addresses used in the attack.

The exposed data includes member IDs, names, dates of birth, gender, nationality, mobile phone numbers, email addresses and most recent login timestamps. However, Jin Air said passwords, financial information and payment records were not leaked.

Jin Air said it has not confirmed any cases of the leaked personal data being misused. The airline urged customers to be cautious about clicking links from unknown sources, downloading attachments and responding to requests to enter personal information.

After detecting the incident, Jin Air filed a report with the Personal Information Protection Commission and took other necessary safety measures. The company also fully blocked access to the system identified as the attack entry point and deleted the system entirely.

Jin Air also launched a company-wide review of its security systems and vulnerabilities, and activated a 24-hour emergency monitoring system to strengthen its security posture.

Earlier, on Oct. 20, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines were notified by Amadeus IT Group, a global aviation IT systems operator, of a suspected leak of customer data. Reservation-related information belonging to customers of both carriers was compromised, though no direct breach of their own systems or internal databases was found.

"We recognize the gravity of this situation and plan to strengthen measures to protect customer information by reviewing our company-wide security infrastructure and monitoring systems," Jin Air said.


hajun825@heraldcorp.com