The Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN) share price has dropped more than 2% after the airline reported a cyber incident.
Qantas cyber attack
The airline business reported a cyber incident has occurred in one of its contact centres impacting customer data. Qantas said the system is “now contained”.
A cybercriminal targeted a call centre and gained access to a third-party customer servicing platform.
Qantas said there has been no impact to Qantas’ operations or the safety of the airline.
When did this happen?
On Monday, Qantas detected unusual activity on a third-party platform used by a Qantas contact centre. It then took “immediate steps and contained the system”.
There are 6 million customers who have service records in this platform.
Qantas is investigating the proportion of the data that has been stolen, though it expects it will “be significant”.
An initial review has confirmed the data includes customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers.
However, credit card details, personal financial information and passport details are not held on this system. Qantas said no frequent flyer accounts were compromised, nor have passwords, PIN numbers or log in details been accessed.
Time will tell what the impact is for the Qantas share price.
What is Qantas doing?
As it investigates, the airline is putting in additional security measures in place to further restrict access and strengthen system monitoring and detection.
Qantas has notified the authorities and it will continue to support these agencies as the investigation continues.
It has established a dedicated customer support line as well as a page on its website to provide the latest information to customers.
Customers can contact the support line on 1800 971 541 or +61 2 8028 0534 and will have access to specialist identity protection advice and resources through this team.
Management commentary
The Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson said:
We sincerely apologise to our customers and we recognise the uncertainty this will cause. Our customers trust us with their personal information and we take that responsibility seriously.
We are contacting our customers today and our focus is on providing them with the necessary support. We are working closely with the Federal Government’s National Cyber Security Coordinator, the Australian Cyber Security Centre and independent specialised cyber security experts.
Final thoughts on the Qantas share price
Any cyber incident is unfortunate and this is not a good look for Qantas. The customer information has been accessed and stolen, regardless of whether it was from Qantas itself or through this contact centre.
A fall of 2% is not a massive decline compared to other cyber incidents that happened in the past. Qantas shares are still up more than 70% in the past year. I don’t think it’s a major problem for the airline, but I wouldn’t call it a buy right now. That’s because of the higher valuation, rather than concern about the fallout of this cyber news.
That’s why I think there are other ASX growth shares out there that are more attractive, in my opinion.
