British Airways landed in hot water when its database was breached, allowing hackers to steal the information of half-a-million BA customers. According to Afar, the airline is facing a fine of £183 million (R2,876,038,980), which is equivalent to 1.5 percent of BA’s annual revenue.
The high price of the fine is due to newly-implemented regulations, and is hoped to stand as an example and warning for other companies of the consequences of having large data caches hacked.
While the breach was reported a few months ago, the fine was proposed by the Britain’s Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, on Monday 8 July.
According to Afar, a scam diverted BA customers to a fake website where their credit card details were stolen.
Denham said in a statement, ‘People’s personal data is just that, personal. When an organization fails to protect it from loss, damage or theft it is more than an inconvenience. That’s why the law is clear, when you are entrusted with personal data you must look after it.’
After investigating BA, the Information Commissioner’s Office said that the weak security compromised users’ login, payment cards, travel booking details, name and address information.
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