Air New Zealand sent e-mails to customers enrolled in its Airpoints loyalty program​​​​​​ to warn them of a phishing attack that successfully compromised the email accounts of two staff members which potentially led to personal information being accessed by the attackers.

According to its website, Air New Zealand has carried roughly 17 million passengers every year to 51 destinations around the world.

The airline’s Airpoints program allows enrolled customers—which Otago Daily Times reports to be around 2 million—to spend the Airpoints Dollars they earn on “flights, gifts from the Airpoints Store and a range of other great benefits.”

Credit card data not affected

“We’re sorry to advise that some of your personal information may have been affected by a recent phishing incident relating to two Air New Zealand staff accounts,” the airline’s Regional General Manager, Loyalty & Customer Direct Jeremy O’Brien says in the letter sent to the affected passengers.

While the email does say that the customers’ Airpoints accounts were not accessed in the security incident, O’Brien’s e-mail states that “some information relating to your membership profile may have been visible in our internal documents. Your Airpoints password and your credit card details are not affected.”

The company secured the two compromised email accounts after discovering the phishing attack and started an investigation to learn more about how the attackers were able to potentially access the data.

O’Brien also says that Air New Zealand is now also focusing “on further hardening our security processes to help prevent any similar incidents from happening in the future.”

Airline warns of phishing attacks

Customers are also being urged to be “on the lookout for phishing emails over the next few months” which could potentially lead to more personal information being stolen if the targeted people get tricked by the crooks.

Seeing that identity theft is also always a real possibility following a potential leak of personal information, Air New Zealand customers who received this letter should check their bank statements and monitor their online social media accounts for signs that someone has taken control of any of them.

More information on what measures should be taken by any of the Air New Zealand customers who think they might have had their identity stolen are available on CERT NZ’s website.

BleepingComputer has reached out to Air New Zealand for more details on what exact data was accessed by the attackers but had not heard back at the time of this publication. 

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