London : Cathay Pacific Airways has enlisted a company that was itself once caught up in a hacking scandal to help deal with the fallout of a data breach that affected more than 9-million passengers.
Asia’s biggest international carrier is offering customers hit by the hack — which saw passport details to e-mails illegally accessed — the option to take up a service provided by Experian to monitor whether their information is being misused online.
But the Nottingham, England-based credit-tracking firm had its own experience with hacking in 2015, when a breach saw the data of 15-million subscribers of T-Mobile US held on Experian’s servers exposed. The company was sued over the incident, along with the telecommunications provider.
Cathay has lost more than $320m in market value since news of the hack broke, as investors and customers question the company’s handling of the situation. The airline, which said it first discovered the breach in March and confirmed it in May, did not disclose it until October 24, in a late-night statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
When queried on Experian’s history, Cathay declined to comment. The airline said the time taken to disclose the breach was mainly due to the complexity of the data, and because the event required considerable investigation. “We are focused now on assisting affected customers.”
