British Airways Hacked - 380,00 Credit Card Details Stolen

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fountainhall

British Airways Hacked - 380,00 Credit Card Details Stolen

Post by fountainhall »

If you booked a BA ticket online or through its app between 22.58 BST August 21 2018 until 21.45 BST September 5 2018, the personal and financial details of 380,000 credit/debit card holders have been hacked. The airline asks all customers who booked during this period to check with their banks and card issuers about possible fraudulent transactions.

No travel information was affected and passport details were not stolen.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ts-website

Am I the only one who cannot understand why, in an age of hackers, huge organisations like BA simply cannot make their on line booking sites more secure? It seems to happen so regularly nowadays.

This is the third major technology issue to have affected BA in 15 months. Yet IAG, its parent company, recently announced that its first half profits had more than doubled over the same period last year. Will they spend some of that improving their security?
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Re: British Airways Hacked - 380,00 Credit Card Details Stolen

Post by Gaybutton »

fountainhall wrote:why, in an age of hackers, huge organisations like BA simply cannot make their on line booking sites more secure?
I don't know what it takes to make such sites more secure, but the problem seems to be that whatever security steps are taken to prevent these problems, sooner or later the hackers figure out how to beat whatever they've done.

The possibility of insider involvement doesn't escape me.

The only way I can think of to foil the hackers would be to open a separate bank account, at a bank where you have no other accounts, put money into that account only in the amount you're going to use for an online payment, and pay only with a debit card, not a credit card. Then, if some hacker manages to get the information, there's either no money or minimal money in that account for him to steal.
fountainhall

Re: British Airways Hacked - 380,00 Credit Card Details Stolen

Post by fountainhall »

I have accounts with two banks in Hong Kong and two in Thailand. Basically I do what you suggest and use one in each country for on-line purchases with a small balance in each. Two months ago Citi in Hong Kong called me to ask if I was making a credit card purchase of an air ticket in Jakarta! The amount was only around US$200 but I was impressed the security guys in Citi had spotted I had not visited Jakarta for almost 30 years. The charge was not processed and my card cancelled.

My main bank is HSBC. Just logging-in to my account is now quite complex. Understandably I need a password (which is actually the answer to one of my pre-registered questions). Then I have to take a small credit card-sized number generating device, insert onto it my own 6-digit pass code, then press a green button which generates another 6 digit code. This has to be added to the log-in page - and at last I can see my account information. It's a boring process, but I'd rather than than have my account hacked.
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Re: British Airways Hacked - 380,00 Credit Card Details Stolen

Post by Gaybutton »

fountainhall wrote:It's a boring process, but I'd rather than than have my account hacked.
Yes, but it seems like most the time it's some company that gets hacked before the hackers have information enough to access people's credit cards and bank accounts. That's why I suggest using a debit card, as I posted above, rather than a credit card. That way if a hacker gets information for that account, there's nothing there for him to steal.
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Re: British Airways Hacked - 380,00 Credit Card Details Stolen

Post by gerefan »

Another reason why our national airline remains at the top of my No Fly List.
fountainhall

Re: British Airways Hacked - 380,00 Credit Card Details Stolen

Post by fountainhall »

I was a Gold Card member of BA's Executive Club for 12 years until 2012 and Silver for another 3. Since a couple of economy trans-Atlantic flights and several inter-Europe flights in mid-2015 I have not flown BA and hopefully never will again. The days when Joan Collins would purr on its TV commercials "The World's Favourite Airline" ended decades ago. Its economy cabins seem to me now considerably worse than Easyjet. As other airlines have spent a lot of cash developing major improvements to business class, BA's product remains almost 20 years out of date. Add to that the ancient cramped 777s it flies on the LHR/BKK route and I can't imagine why anyone flies the carrier.
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Re: British Airways Hacked - 380,00 Credit Card Details Stolen

Post by traveller123 »

BA is often the cheapest BKK/LHR and you can understand why
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Re: British Airways Hacked - 380,00 Credit Card Details Stolen

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