Major airline operator Delta has said that a cyberattack targeting a third-party contractor has potentially exposed the payment details of “several hundred thousand customers”.
In a statement, Delta has said that payment-card information for about “several hundred thousand” airline customers may have been exposed by a malware-laden data breach that also struck the likes of Sears and other companies. The data breach occurred between September 26 and October 12 at a third-party vendor called [24]7.ai with unauthorized access to customers’ details including names, addresses, CVV numbers, expiration dates and payment-card related information. The third-party vendor provides online chat services to Delta and notified the carrier and other clients last week.
The Atlanta-based airline said it wasn’t sure if customers’ information was compromised by the malware for about two weeks, a day after stating only a “small subset” of customers were affected by the attack.
The breach also impacts Sears, the operator of Kmart stores, saying in a statement that it learned of the problem sometime in mid-March before notifying credit-card companies of potential fraud.
The incident joins a growing list of US companies impacted by data breaches in industries including retailers Under Armour, Hudson Bay, aerospace giant Boeing and electrical and natural gas pipeline utilities.
Delta has currently engaged federal law enforcement agencies and forensic teams, ABC News reports.
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