Korean Air breach exposes blind spot in airline cybersecurity

A recent data breach involving Korean Air and Asiana Airlines demonstrates the aviation industry’s structural vulnerability to cyberattacks targeting third-party IT providers. Carriers depend on external IT system operators to manage critical operations, as they have to share passenger booking and ticketing data with external partners for real-time global operation. Last week, Korean Air and Asiana said customer reservation information had been leaked through Amadeus IT Group, a global aviation technology provider that operates reservation and ticketing systems for airlines worldwide. The two carriers said Amadeus had notified them of the incident on Tuesday. The breach is believed to have involved unauthorized access using login credentials assigned to an account in Amadeus' system. The estimated incident window spans August 2023 to last month, although investigators have yet to establish the exact timing. Korean Air confirmed that some customers' booking reference numbers were among the exposed information, while the full scope of the leak and the number of affected customers remaine