Tag Archives for data hacks.
A frequent flyer program database has been breached, giving hackers access to the name, account number, and elite level of all members in all Star Alliance frequent flyer programs, according to notices provided by Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Air New Zealand. oneworld account data has also been breached, according to notices provided by Cathay Pacific and Finnair.
United Airlines has just fixed a glitch that allowed anyone to view the name and ticket details of customers who had requested refunds.
Anyone can check refund status online by entering their name and ticket number, but United wasn’t validating that names matched the ticket numbers whose information they displayed.
At the end of July travel management first CWT (formerly Carlson Wagonlit Travel), which is one of the largest firms handling business travel, meetings, and conferences, representing more than one-third of companies on the S&P 500, paid $4.5 million after a ransomware attack.
What’s unique about the Carlson attack is that the negotiations between the company and the hackers were left online for anyone to read.
Having a variety of unique questions with free form answers is one solution. In fact, I applaud JetBlue for taking this approach. One of the questions, though, is stirring controversy on social media.
Your frequent flyer accounts are more than rewards for your behavior. They’re also data that’s valuable, too. So is your credit card spending. Banks don’t just give you points, get transaction value, and make money on interchange (merchant swipe fees) and revolve (interest). They generate intelligence about your buying behavior that can be rented out to companies that want to sell more to you.
When data is hacked, we hear about biographical information that’s taken – name, address, e-mail address, and we worry about social security numbers. That’s not even the really valuable stuff.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
