Air Canada, the nation’s flag carrier and the largest airline in Canada, has recently disclosed a cybersecurity incident where unauthorized individuals briefly gained limited access to its internal systems.
According to the airline, this incident led to the theft of a restricted amount of personal data belonging to select employees and specific records. Importantly, customer data remained unaffected.
Air Canada, which faced public scrutiny not long ago due to passenger complaints regarding seat cleanliness and no-fly lists, now finds itself in the spotlight once more, this time due to a cybersecurity event affecting its internal infrastructure.
“An unauthorized group briefly gained limited access to an internal Air Canada system that contained a subset of personal information related to certain employees and specific records,” reads a statement released on September 20th on Air Canada’s official press website.
It’s crucial to note that this incident did not impact the airline’s flight operations systems or its customer-facing platforms, and no customer data was compromised in any way.
Air Canada has taken swift action by reaching out to the affected individuals and involving relevant law enforcement authorities in addressing the situation.
“We can also confirm that all our systems are currently operating without issue,” the statement reassures.
“In response to this incident, we have taken additional steps to enhance our security measures, collaborating with leading global cybersecurity experts. This is part of our ongoing commitment to safeguarding the integrity of the data entrusted to us.”
The provided disclosure remains concise, offering no further details regarding the cause of the incident. The statement concludes by noting that Air Canada has no further comments to make on this matter.
This is not the first time Air Canada has grappled with a cybersecurity breach. Back in 2018, the airline revealed that unauthorized parties had accessed the profile information of 20,000 users of its mobile app.
In response, Air Canada took precautionary measures, including temporarily locking out all 1.7 million mobile app accounts to ensure user safety.
