{"id":42433,"date":"2015-04-01T11:00:03","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T18:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mcafee.com\/?p=42433"},"modified":"2025-08-19T10:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T17:31:07","slug":"british-airways-hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/internet-security\/british-airways-hack\/","title":{"rendered":"British Airways Frequent Flyers Report Stolen Air Miles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frequent flyers, beware. Tens of thousands of accounts may have been compromised due to an automated attack against British Airways, according to The Guardian<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>This automated attack appears to have used information found elsewhere on the Internet (other previously leaked login info, for example) to gain access to British Airways accounts.<\/p>\n

The incident first came to light when members of the British Airways\u2019 Executive Club reported their reward points stolen<\/a>, though the full scope of the hack is unknown. The popular airline said no personal information, such as names, addresses or credit card numbers had been compromised or stolen. British Airways said it has frozen affected accounts while the attack is under investigation.<\/p>\n

The current theory behind how this attack was pulled off is that a compromised website sharing information with British Airways, such as popular hotel chain<\/a>, that suffered a security lapse from a basic flaw allowed hackers to gain access to the customer login information. Assuming that customers on one website used the same login information (username and password) across multiple sites, this could, in theory, lead to compromised accounts across dozens of websites. It\u2019s a domino effect, and it\u2019s growing more problematic as more services leverage the Internet to reach customers. This is what\u2019s known as \u201cdaisy chaining<\/a>\u201d in the security industry and is almost completely preventable by using different passwords for different accounts.<\/p>\n

Protect Yourself Online<\/h2>\n

So what can you do to protect yourself online? Well, a lot actually. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:<\/p>\n