Travel industry data breaches

In recent years, several monumental travel industry data breaches have hit the headlines, highlighting how travel companies are prime targets for hackers seeking to harvest personal data. However, the travel industry is not just targeted for its wealth of sensitive information – many reports and exposés have revealed that too many travel companies have failed, and continue to fail, to simply protect customer data.

The extensive reports of poor data security in the travel industry demand a strong response, which is why we are representing affected customers of a number of travel industry data breaches. Our huge British Airways data breach group action is the first GDPR Group Litigation Order in England and Wales, and we are looking to recover thousands of pounds in compensation for our clients.

If you have suffered the harmful effects of a data protection breach, we are here to help.

Notable travel industry data breaches

Included in the list of notable travel industry data breaches are the names of two major airlines, easyJet and British Airways. In the easyJet data breach, some 9 million customers were affected by the exposure of personal information, including travel details and email addresses, with 2,000 also affected by the exposure of credit and debit card details. Meanwhile, British Airways suffered two major data breaches in 2018, which similarly exposed personal and financial information, affecting approximately 400,000 customers.

Both of these breaches were caused by external cyberattacks, but this does not mean they were unavoidable. In fact, British Airways faced a huge £20m fine from the ICO, which found in its investigations that the airline had failed to protect customer data. The Marriott data breach was met with similar consequences, as the hotel chain was hit with £18.4m fine after exposing the data of around 339 million former guests.

The data security problems persist

The shocking figures detailed above speak for themselves, but it seems many travel companies have failed to fully grasp the severity of the recent travel industry data breaches. A 2020 investigation carried out by Which? reportedly found hundreds of cybersecurity vulnerabilities on websites of major travel companies. In fact, Marriott, easyJet and British Airways were amongst the top 5 worst companies, with huge numbers of risks identified. There were 497 vulnerabilities on websites reportedly owned by Marriott alone.

The report suggests that none of these three companies have fully rectified the data security problems which provoked their monumental data breaches. Neglecting their duty to customers could mean that companies are exposing them to further fraud, scams, and identity theft, as well as significant distress, so it is simply unacceptable that these vulnerabilities are not being addressed.

Make your data breach claim

If you have been affected by one of the many travel industry data breaches, we know that you may feel a strong sense of injustice about the damage that has been caused, so we are here to help. As expert data breach lawyers, we have been taking on claims for victims for several years, so we have extensive experience in winning compensation for our clients.

Affected customers can claim in our actions against British Airways, easyJet and Marriott, but do not hesitate to contact us about any data breaches that you have been involved in. We can offer free, no-obligation advice about all data breach claims, and can even offer No Win, No Fee representation to eligible claimants.