Akasa Air prevents unauthorised info access after suffering data breach

New Delhi: Akasa Air, which only recently began operations, experienced a data breach that allowed unauthorised people to access some customer information.

On Sunday, the airline expressed regret for the data breach and claimed it had "self-reported" the incident to the nodal organisation, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

The airline stated in a statement on its website that a brief technical configuration issue with its login and sign-up service was discovered on August 25.

"As a result, some Akasa Air registered user information limited to names, gender, e-mail addresses and phone numbers may have been viewed by unauthorised individuals. We can confirm to you that aside from the above details, no travel-related information, travel records or payment information was compromised," it said.

On being made aware of the incident, Akasa Air said it immediately stopped this unauthorised access by completely shutting down the associated functional elements of its system.

"Subsequently, having added additional controls to address this situation, we have resumed our login and sign-up," the communication said.

Akasa Air also said the system security and protection of customer information is paramount.

"We sincerely apologise to you for any inconvenience caused as a result of this," it added.

Akasa Air, the first Indian carrier to be launched in nearly a decade, operated its inaugural flight on August 7 from Mumbai to Ahmedabad.

Billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who passed away earlier this month, had made a substantial investment in the airline.

With PTI inputs