The airline’s computer systems distinguish insights from the UK and another 10 million people from other countries. This includes information such as passport, date of birth, policies and salary number. Source conditions that security of trust was not taken into account between October and May. Cathay Pacific was resolved on the problem in March, as it had a brute force attack to guess passports.
Investigators Are Extremely Concerned About The Errors Found
It paints a picture of a company that has not taken the security of personal data seriously, and today’s fine will be a wake-up call for them and other companies. However, it’s a minor thing compared to what it could have been if the hack had taken place more recently. New rules have increased the maximum potential penalty and it is clear that the mistakes here would have justified a much more severe punishment.
Instead of a 500,000 fine, Cathay Pacific could have been hit by a shareholder who fined 4% of its worldwide annual turnover. The 500,000 fine that Cathay Pacific faces is the maximum possible under the data protection act that was used due to the timing of the events in this investigation.
There were no confirmed cases of personal data misuse, but it was very likely that this would be the case in the future. In a statement regarding the fine, Cathay Pacific said that it would like to regret and sincerely apologize for the incident. It has been said that significant amounts of money have been spent on security in the past three years. However, we are aware that in today’s world, given the increasing complexity of cyber attackers, we must and will continue to invest in our IT security systems.
The airline had dutifully reported the problems, which subsequently uncovered major violations of the rules. These included that backup data was not password-protected, servers with internet access were not sufficiently protected, operating systems without support were used and anti-virus programs were sometimes used. It was particularly bad that certain errors were known and thus avoidable. The amount is not extremely high, but Cathay Pacific is currently in a precarious situation due to the huge drop in aviation demand and there are concerns that data protection officers from other countries could take action against the airline.
