Australian airline Qantas disclosed that it detected a cyberattack on Monday after risk actors gained entry to a third-party platform containing buyer information.
Qantas is Australia’s largest airline, working home and worldwide flights throughout six continents and using round 24,000 individuals.
In a press launch issued Monday evening, the airline states that the assault has been contained, however a “vital” quantity of knowledge is believed to have been stolen. The breach started after a risk actor focused a Qantas name centre and gained entry to a third-party buyer servicing platform.
“On Monday, we detected uncommon exercise on a 3rd get together platform utilized by a Qantas airline contact centre. We then took rapid steps and contained the system. We will affirm all Qantas programs stay safe,” Qantas said.
“There are 6 million prospects which have service information on this platform. We’re persevering with to research the proportion of the information that has been stolen, although we count on it is going to be vital. An preliminary assessment has confirmed the information consists of some prospects’ names, e mail addresses, cellphone numbers, beginning dates and frequent flyer numbers.”
Qantas says no bank card or private monetary info was uncovered, and frequent flyer account passwords, PINs, and login particulars weren’t impacted.
After detecting the breach, Qantas says it notified the Australian Cyber Safety Centre, the Workplace of the Australian Data Commissioner, and the Australian Federal Police. It is unclear if exterior cybersecurity consultants are helping with the investigation.
Scattered Spider assaults goal aviation companies
This assault comes as cybersecurity companies warn that hackers often known as “Scattered Spider” have begun focusing on the aviation and transportation industries.
Whereas it’s unclear if this group is behind the Qantas assault, BleepingComputer has discovered the incident shares similarities with different current assaults by the risk actors.
Scattered Spider (additionally tracked as 0ktapus, UNC3944, Scatter Swine, Starfraud, and Muddled Libra) is a bunch of risk actors recognized for his or her conducting social engineering and identity-based assaults towards organizations worldwide, generally utilizing phishing, SIM swapping, MFA bombing, and assist desk cellphone calls to achieve entry to worker credentials.
In September 2023, they escalated their assaults by breaching MGM Resorts and encrypting over 100 VMware ESXi hypervisors utilizing BlackCat ransomware after gaining entry by impersonating an worker. They’ve additionally partnered with different ransomware operations, comparable to RansomHub, Qilin, and DragonForce. Different organizations focused by Scattered Spider embody Twilio, Coinbase, DoorDash, Caesars, MailChimp, Riot Video games, and Reddit.
After not too long ago specializing in retail and insurance coverage corporations, cybersecurity companies warned on Friday that Scattered Spider had shifted its consideration to aviation, with current assaults on Hawaiian Airways and WestJet believed to be linked to the risk actors.
BleepingComputer has discovered that within the WestJet breach, risk actors exploited a self-service password reset to achieve entry to an worker’s account, which was then used to breach the community.
The risk actors have been using a sector-by-sector strategy to their assaults, and it’s unclear if they’re executed with the aviation sector and what business will likely be focused subsequent.
Organizations defending towards this sort of risk ought to begin by gaining full visibility throughout the whole infrastructure, id programs, and demanding administration companies.
This consists of securing self-service password reset platforms, assist desks, and third-party id distributors, which have turn out to be widespread targets of those risk actors.
Each Google Risk Intelligence Group (GTIG) and Palo Alto Networks have launched guides on hardening defenses towards the recognized “Scattered Spider” ways, which admins ought to familiarize themselves with.
Different current cyberattacks believed to be related to Scattered Spider embody M&S, Co-op, Erie Insurance coverage, and Aflac.
Whereas cloud assaults could also be rising extra subtle, attackers nonetheless succeed with surprisingly easy strategies.
Drawing from Wiz’s detections throughout hundreds of organizations, this report reveals 8 key strategies utilized by cloud-fluent risk actors.
