India: Turbulence for Akasa Air as it reports a major data breach

Barely a month after starting its operations, India's newest aircraft carrier Akasa Air has run into trouble. Reportedly, earlier this week, the company suffered a major data breach which exposed the personal data of its passengers.

Reportedly, after getting to know about the data breach, Akasa Air promptly shared the information with Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a nodal agency working under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of the Government of India.

"This is to inform you that a temporary technical configuration error related to our login and sign-up service was reported on Thursday, August 25, 2022," said the airline in a mail to the government nodal agency.

Details such asname, gender, phone number, and email id of the passengers have been leaked in the breach. However, according to the airline, confidential information such as travel records and payment information of the passengers hadnot been compromised.

In addition to the mail sent to the agency, Akasa Air also dropped a mail to the passengers, informing them about the course of action it had taken so far.

"We self-reported the incident to CERT-In (which is the government authorized nodal agency tasked to deal with incidents of this nature). Despite having extensive protocols in place to prevent incidents of such nature, we have undertaken additional reviews to ensure that the security of all our systems is enhanced further,"

Moreover, apologising for the incident, Akasa Air stated that it was reinforcing its systems.

"We are continuously reinforcing our systems, including working with experts and the research community, to ensure that they are robust. We sincerely apologize to you for any inconvenience caused as a result of this incident,"

What is Akasa Air?

As reported extensively by WION, backed by recently deceased billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Akasa Air began flight operations between Mumbai and Ahmedabad on August 7.

Akasa Air is a low-cost airline headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It was founded in December 2021 with the vision, "the Sky embraces everyone, and so air travel should be inclusive and affordable for all."

Reportedly, late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala had partnered with IndiGo's Aditya Ghosh and Vinay Dube to launch the airline.

Akasa Air plans to fly 18 aircraft by the end of March 2023 across domestic routes in the country. The airline plans to operate approximately 70 planes in the next four years

(With inputs from agencies)

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