Airbus hit by data breach compromising employees’ private data

• Airbus ‘Commercial Aircraft business’ information systems were breached, resulting in unauthorized access to data.
• Airbus confirmed that the breach did not impact its commercial operations.

Aerospace corporation Airbus announced on January 30, 2019, that it detected a cyber attack on Airbus' Commercial Aircraft business information systems resulting in attackers gaining unauthorized access to data. However, the European company confirmed that the data breach did not impact its commercial operations.

What was compromised?

Airbus disclosed that some private data of some of its employees in Europe was compromised in the incident. The compromised private data included employees’ professional contact details and IT identification details.

“Investigations are ongoing to understand if any specific data was targeted, however, we do know some personal data was accessed. This is mostly professional contact and IT identification details of some Airbus employees in Europe,” Airbus said in a statement.

What were the preventive measures taken?

Upon learning about the incident, Airbus’ experts carried out investigations on the incident to determine its origins.

• Airbus experts investigated the incident and took immediate actions to reinforce existing security measures.
• The Aerospace Corporation also took appropriate actions to mitigate the potential impact of the incident.
• The company is also working closely with the regulatory authorities and data protection authorities.
• Furthermore, the company advised its employees to take all necessary precautions to avoid such incidents from happening in the future.

“The company is in contact with the relevant regulatory authorities and the data protection authorities pursuant to the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Airbus employees are being advised to take all necessary precautions going forward,” the statement read.