British Airways has been fined $ 26 million by the Office of the Information Commissioner (ICO) in the UK for data breaches in 2018 resulting in the personal and financial details of 429,612 BA customers exposed.
After conducting a nearly 2-year investigation, the ICO concluded that British Airways did not have adequate security measures to process large amounts of personal data. As such, the failure violates data protection laws.
Although the fine is less than the £ 183 million submitted by the ICO in 2019, it is the largest fine ever issued by the organization. In fact, they also take into account the economic impact of Covid-19.
In addition, hackers are believed to have successfully accessed the names, addresses, payment card numbers and CVV numbers of 244,000 British Airways customers. In addition, usernames and passwords of up to 612 BA Executive Club members may also have been revealed.
Even more unfortunate, British Airways took more than 2 months to realize the issue.
According to a British Airways spokesperson, they have already informed customers as soon as they become aware of a criminal attack on the company's system in 2018 and apologize.
