Air France victim of a "data leak" following "fraudulent access"

Cold sweats for the airline's thousands of passengers. Air France announced that it was confronted this Wednesday, August 6, with a "data breach" that exposed some of its customers' personal information. The company specifies that this involved fraudulent access to a computer system operated by a third-party service provider, which was quickly identified and secured. "Our IT security teams, in collaboration with the service provider concerned, quickly took the necessary measures to remedy the situation and have reinforced protective measures to prevent this from happening again," states the press release sent by the company. The incident was also reported to the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL), the French data protection regulatory authority.

Air France wants to reassure people about the nature of the stolen data. "Data such as credit card information, passport numbers, Flying Blue miles balance, password or booking information were not disclosed," it assures. However, other personal information was indeed exposed: "This concerns your previous contacts with our customer service and may include: your first name, your last name, your contact information, your Flying Blue number and your status, as well as the subject of your requests made by email."

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While this data alone does not allow direct access to an account, its potential use in phishing or identity theft attempts is a cause for concern. The airline is calling for vigilance: "We recommend that you be vigilant about any unusual communication that may contain your personal information (...). The data involved in this breach could be used to make hacking messages more credible." Air France is therefore urging its customers to be extra cautious when receiving suspicious messages or calls, and to "verify their authenticity before taking any action."