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Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson has denied that operating a call centre from Manila made the airline more susceptible to last week’s customer data hack.
In comments reported by The Australian, Hudson argued that cyber criminals operate globally and added that a similar incident had occurred the week prior in the United States.
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“I don’t think any part of any business or any operation is not exposed to this threat,” she said. “It’s something we have to manage as modern organisations, and we have to learn from these events when they happen.”
The incident, which occurred seven days ago, reportedly involved cyber criminals using AI to impersonate a Qantas employee and then trick a customer service operator into divulging crucial information.
In total, hackers gained access to 6 million customer records, including names, email addresses, and phone numbers.
However, Hudson insisted that most of its recruitment had been happening in Auckland and Hobart, rather than in its other call centres in Manila, Suva, and Cape Town.
“Also, as this investigation (into the cyber attack) goes through we will review everything, and I am going to be open to every suggestion that comes from that review to do two things: one, to make sure that we uplift our controls and the security of data around customers, but also continue to improve service levels,” she added.
It comes after Australian Aviation reported last week how Qantas pledged to tell every affected customer which parts of their data had been stolen.
“Next week we will be in a position to update affected customers on the types of their personal data that was contained in the system,” Qantas said in a statement.
“This will confirm specific data fields for each individual, which will vary from customer to customer.
“We have also increased resourcing in our contact centres to support our customers and have received more than 5,000 enquiries through our dedicated customer support line established following the cyber incident.
“Since Wednesday morning, the airline has communicated directly with its frequent flyers to notify them of the incident and to apologise that this has occurred. Frequent flyers who have not received this email should check their spam or junk folder.”
Qantas also reiterated that no credit card details, personal financial information, or passport details were stolen and stated that there was no impact on Frequent Flyer accounts.
While no group has claimed responsibility, reports suggest that a hacking collective known as Scattered Spider may be behind the attack.
Tony Jarvis, a chief information and security officer for the business, said Scattered Spider claimed responsibility for attacks against America’s Hawaiian Airlines and Canada’s Westjet the week prior.
“Scattered Spider are thought to be native English speakers who don’t just exploit technical vulnerabilities but manipulate people, especially IT help desks, through phishing, Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) bombing, and SIM swapping to gain access,” Jarvis said.
“The unfortunate thing is that this sort of third-party attack is not unique. It is just one more example of why cybersecurity is a fundamental business priority across the entire supply chain – especially when defending against highly targeted tactics that bypass traditional security measures.
“How significant the impact will be to Qantas’ operations – across both digital and physical channels – and the damage to its brand and reputation remains to be seen.”
