Recently, employees and contractors working for Virgin America Airline (now owned by Alaskan Airlines) received notification from the company that hackers may have gained access to their login and other personal data.
The company’s cybersecurity team discovered the intrusion attempt on March 13 and immediately put their response plan into action, informing law enforcement and contacting forensic experts to assist them in getting to the bottom of the issue.
In terms of scope and scale, some 3,300 employee credentials may have been impacted, with user names and passwords possibly stolen. In at least 110 cases, a variety of other sensitive personal pieces of information may have been stolen, including names, addresses and social security numbers. As a precaution, all employees and contractors have been advised to change their passwords immediately.
This is from the company’s official response:
“It is always a good idea to remain vigilant against threats of identity theft or fraud and to regularly review your bank and credit card statement and credit reports for any unauthorized activity. Report suspected incidents of fraud or identity theft promptly. You should also regularly rotate your password for your online accounts and not use the same password for multiple accounts. We have enclosed a Resources Guide containing contact information for the three national consumer reporting agencies and other information which you may find helpful.”
In addition to this, Virgin warned all of its employees and contractors to be on the lookout for additional phishing attacks which may be launched by the hackers in an effort to gain even more information.
The company has received high marks for its prompt and professional response to the incident, citing their pro-active approach in terms of security monitoring, the speed with which they brought law enforcement and forensics experts in to assist and their good communication with impacted or potentially impacted parties.
Nobody wants to be hacked, but if you are, use Virgin America as a template for how to respond.
