Data breach costs British Airways 183 mn pounds fine

British Airways has disclosed that last year on September hackers had carried out a sophisticated attack on its website. During the hackers' invasion, approximately 380,000 transactions were affected.

London:The UK data watchdog has imposed a fine of 183 million pounds on the British Airways for last year's breach of its security systems.

British Airways' chairman Alex Cruz said, "We are surprised and disappointed in this initial finding from the Information Commissioner's Office."

"British Airways responded quickly to a criminal act to steal customers' data. We have found no evidence of fraud/fraudulent activity on accounts linked to the theft. We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience this event caused," he added.

According to the report, British Airways has disclosed that last year on September hackers had carried out a sophisticated attack on its website. During the hackers' invasion, approximately 380,000 transactions were affected, but the stolen data did not include travel or passport details.

Furthermore, the information included names, email addresses, credit cards information such as credit card numbers, expiration dates and the three-digit CVV code found on the back of credit cards, although British Airways has said it did not store CVV numbers.

However, the penalty handed over to British Airways amounts to 1.5 per cent of its worldwide turnover in 2017.

British Airways has 28 days to appeal.