Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has published a notice alerting customers that a recent multi-hour outage of its website and mobile application was brought on by a hack that also exposed client data. The airline’s online system was somehow broken due to the cyberattack, making passenger information accessible to other travelers. Contact information, past and upcoming flights, and the last four digits of the credit card number are all included in this data.
“Last night SAS, alongside several other companies, were subjected to a cyberattack that led to our website and app being down for a few hours. Furthermore, some passengers’ data became visible to other passengers who were active during the ongoing attack.” – SAS.
The airline, which has a fleet of 131 aircraft and transports passengers to 168 locations, claims that the danger of this exposure is small because the disclosed financial data is incomplete and difficult to use. It also makes it clear that no passport information has been made public. However, if threat actors or con artists gained access to the disclosed data during the attack, full names, and contact details are sufficient to enable them to carry out focused phishing attacks.
According to the SAS statement, they always work with the national CAA (Civil Aviation Agency), police, and security agencies when it comes to security concerns – regardless of the situation. They are keeping a close eye on the situation and continuing their analysis and evaluation of the incident and its attendant effects, as well as their efforts to implement preventative measures.
According to TheRecord, a group of purported hacktivists going by the name of “Anonymous Sudan” claimed responsibility for the attack on SAS. It released a statement about it on its Telegram channel. The threat actors claim that they targeted SAS because of an incident that happened on January 21, 2023, in Stockholm, Sweden, in which a far-right nationalist group burned a copy of the Holy Quran in protest of Turkey’s concerns over Sweden’s NATO membership bid.
Muslims throughout the world, including Sudan, have condemned this atrocity. The flag carrier of Sweden (as well as Denmark and Norway) became a target for hacktivists looking to show their disapproval since SAS is a Swedish company. The same perpetrators that targeted SVT earlier this week caused a brief outage at the country’s public television station in Sweden. IT security specialists interviewed by SVT said that it’s probable that Russian hackers are behind the attacks or are, at the very least, providing the Sudanese organization with resources and expertise.
