A recent cyberattack on American Airlines Group Inc. and Sabre Corp., a travel reservation processor for several airlines and hotels, is reported to be the actions of Chinese-linked hackers.
Three people with knowledge of the attacks claim that a connection to Chinese hackers was made after the incident was seen to be consistent with the recent hacking on insurer Anthem Inc. and the U.S. government's personnel office, Bloomberg reported.
"We recently learned of a cyber-security incident. At this time, we are not aware that this incident has compromised sensitive protected information, such as credit card data or personally identifiable information, but our investigation is ongoing," Sabre said in an email to Reuters, according to Tech Times.
American Airlines spokesman Casey Nortin said that the carrier found no evidence that customer data has been compromised.
"American has worked with outside cyber-security experts who checked digital signatures, IP addresses and the style of attack, and there's no evidence to suggest a breach similar to that experienced by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management," Norton said in an email to Reuters.
If hackers got the data, they can create fake profiles of contractors and officials from the U.S. and use the hacked information for blackmail, in exchange for intelligence information. The data can also be used to determine travel patterns of important people, as well as monitor intelligence or military operations.
The current incident is the biggest attack on the travel industry in the U.S. and comes to light barely a week after a similar attack was waged on United Airlines, Tech Times reported.
