Major hack exposes name, email address and credit card information of 380,000 British Airways customers

Britsh Airways (BA) has announced that hackers have carried out a “sophisticated, malicious criminal attack” against its website and app. Information breached includes personal and financial details from customers with bookings. In total, 380,000 transactions were affected, according to the BBC. 

On the BBC’s “Today” program, BA CEO Alex Cruz said investigations are ongoing and customers affected have already been contacted. He said, “We are 100% committed to compensate them, period.” He continues, “We are committed to working with any customer who may have been financially affected by this attack, and we will compensate them for any financial hardship that they may have suffered.”

The breach affects transactions that occurred between 22:58 BST on Aug. 21 and 21:45 BST on Sept. 5. Information collected in attack include customer names, email addresses, and credit card information.

What can you do?

If your data was compromised, BA suggests the following:

What do I need to do?

If you’ve been affected, you should change your online passwords. Then monitor your bank and credit card accounts keeping an eye out for any dodgy transactions. Also be very wary of any emails or calls asking for more information to help deal with the data breach: crooks often pose as police, banks or, in this instance they could pretend to be from BA.

Will my booking be affected?

BA says none of the bookings have been hit by the breach. It said it has contacted all those affected to alert them to the problem with their data, but booked flights should go ahead.

Will there be compensation for me?

If you suffer any financial loss or hardship, the airline has promised to compensate you.

For more information on this data theft, you can visit this special page on the BA website.