Sat, 22/05/2021 - 14:40

Letter on Air India Passengers Data Leak

 
To,
Shri Ajay Lakra, Public Grievance Officer,
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team,
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

 
Sub:  Regarding data breach of about 4.5 Million Passengers of Air India

 

Respected Officer,

It has been widely reported in the newspapers that  there is yet another data breach, and now at Air India (a flag carrier airline of Air India Limited, an Indian Government-owned enterprise). The reports estimate that the leaked data contains the details of 4.5 million global passengers.

The reported data leak consist of passenger’s name, date of birth, contact information, passport information, ticket information and credit card information. There are also reports that the leak was carried out on passengers registed for Air India, between August 11, 2011 and February 3, 2021.

Air India is the latest among the list of recent data breaches of Domino’s, MobiKwik, BigBasket etc.  Lapses of security and lack of privacy aware practices leading to these breaches put users at risk and pose a systemic threat to the functioning of our society.

In this regard we ask for an investigation into this incident and update citizens on what has transpired at Air India and what is happening with their data. As Public Grievance Officer, we hope you will provide us with a redressal to this incident under Section 43 A of the IT Act.

We are hoping you would carry out this exercise expeditiously and provide us with a copy of the investigation. Kindly confirm receipt of this letter within 2 days as per your citizen’s charter and a detailed redressal for the grievance in a month’s time.

References:
1. https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/cyber-attack-on-air-india-led-to-data-leak-of-4-5-million-fliers
2. https://www.freepressjournal.in/business/air-india-data-leak-personal-data-of-45-lakh-registered-users-from-august-2011-to-february-2021-breached
3. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/air-india-server-hacked-data-of-4-5-million-consumers-compromised/articleshow/82837740.cms