Lufthansa confirmed last week that an unknown number of their customers’ accounts were hacked and the hackers were able to use illegally obtained usernames and passwords in order to use frequent flyer miles to make purchases. Lufthansa has reimbursed its affected customers. Lufthansa reported that the hackers used botnets to infect computers to log on to customers’ accounts on LH.com. This is in the wake of similar incidents reported by other major airlines.
Lufthansa stated that the information the hackers used did not originate from its databases. It is presumed that the information was purchased by the hackers on the black market. It is easy money for hackers as individuals often use the same username and password across different platforms and applications. It is a reminder to all of us to use different usernames and passwords on any account, but particularly financial accounts. We don’t often think of frequent flyer miles as a financial account, but miles can be used to purchase air travel and merchandise. So go change your usernames and passwords now.
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