EasyJet admits it was aware of ‘highly sophisticated cyber attack’ that affected 9 million customers as early as January

Budget airline easyJet was aware of the data breach, which revealed personal information of nine million customers and the credit card information of over 2,200 customers, in January.

News of the cyber attack broke yesterday, revealing that the attacker or attackers had access to the data of customers who booked flights from 17 October 2019 to 4 March 2020. In a statement, the airline said: “We’re sorry that this has happened, and we would like to reassure customers that we take the safety and security of their information very seriously.

“There is no evidence that any personal information of any nature has been misused.” However, while there is no evidence the data was misused, that does not mean that it cannot be misused. Experts suggest that personal information “drives a higher price on the dark web” – the area of the internet inaccessible by mainstream search engines – and could be used for organised crime or ransomed.