Iberia Airlines Notifies Customers of Supply Chain Data Breach

Written by

Customers of Iberia Airlines will need to be on high alert for phishing attacks after the carrier revealed personal information had been compromised via a supplier.

Owned by the International Airlines Group (IAG) that also contains British Airways and Aer Lingus, Spain’s largest airline began sending notifications out over the weekend.

Cyber tracker Hackmanac shared the note, written in Spanish, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) yesterday.

“Unfortunately, Iberia Airlines of Spain has detected a security incident related to unauthorized access to the systems of an Iberia supplier, which has compromised the confidentiality of certain data,” it explained (translation).

“Despite the security measures implemented by Iberia, we have evidence of unauthorized access to certain personal data of our customers, which could include some of yours. The current investigation indicates that data such as your first and last name; email address; or loyalty card identification number (Iberia Club) may have been compromised.”

Read more on aviation data breaches: Scattered Spider Actively Targeting Airlines, FBI Warns

The airline was at pains to point out that no logins or customer financial details had been taken in the raid. It claimed to have taken “all the necessary technical and organizational measures” to contain and recover from the incident, including new checks to prevent unauthorized changes to accounts.

Any customers wanting to change their password must now input a verification code that will be sent by the airline.

The firm is also continuing to monitor for suspicious activity and has notified the relevant authorities, it said.

Question Marks Remain

Iberia Airlines said it had no evidence the stolen information is being used fraudulently, but urged customers to look out for suspicious communications. The compromised information could be used to make follow-on phishing attacks appear legitimate.

It’s unclear what type of supplier was compromised in the attack. However, Hackmanac revealed on November 14 that a threat actor was trying to sell a 77GB trove of passenger data for $150,000.

That collection apparently included technical material on A320 and A321 aircraft, AMP maintenance files, engine data, and internal documents with signatures and certificates.  

Several airlines including Air France and Qantas were also linked to a sophisticated Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters campaign targeting Salesforce customers.

Image credit: BearFotos / Shutterstock.com

What’s Hot on Infosecurity Magazine?