US Airways said Friday that an unauthorized user gained access to Dividend Miles accounts – the airline's second data breach reported within a month.
How many victims? A small number, according to a letter sent to compromised members. Reports suggest there are 30 million Dividend Miles members.
What type of personal information? Names, email addresses, answers to security questions, dates of birth, "Known Traveler" number, last four digits of credit card numbers and flight mileage data.
What happened? Unknown, but an investigation is ongoing.
What was the response? US Airways deactivated account passwords and provided new passwords within letters mailed to affected members. Security questions and answers have also been deactivated. The airline is offering affected members one year of free credit monitoring.
Details: The breach was discovered on July 12. Flight miles were improperly taken from accessed accounts in very limited instances, according to the letter mailed to victims. US Airways officials have no reason to believe that full credit card information was accessed.
Quote: “We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you,” Fernand Fernandez, US Airways managing director, marketing and customer loyalty, wrote in the letter. “US Airways takes information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information.”
Source: California attorney general's office, oag.ca.gov, “Customer Notification Letter,” Aug. 2, 2013.
