Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
Security
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

Computer containing airline ticketing info stolen

But no customer data has been compromised, airlines say

January 14, 2004 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC), an airline-owned financial transaction processing company, said yesterday that two computers, one of which contained airline ticketing data, have been stolen.
It wasn't clear where the computers were taken from, or when, and the Arlington, Va.-based company offered few details about the theft.
In a statement, ARC said that its information so far indicates that the theft of the computers, as well as one computer monitor and a projector, were simple property thefts. "To date, no misuse of data has been reported to ARC," the company said.
ARC said it "has made the appropriate notifications commensurate with the theft and that, as a result, the necessary steps are being taken."
Although the stolen equipment was used in important support functions, it wasn't fundamental to the company's operations, ARC said.
The company said it isn't in a position to provide further details about the theft because of an ongoing investigation by law enforcement officials. ARC spokesman Allan Muten confirmed that the company wouldn't comment about the incident beyond the statement posted on its Web site.
Jason Schechter, a spokesman for UAL Corp.'s United Air Lines Inc., said that his airline had data on the computer. "We have worked with ARC and the credit card companies to ensure we have all the information necessary to convey to our customers," he said. "We've also given our employees information about what happened ... and what to tell our customers."
Schechter said United hasn't gotten any complaints from customers about the misuse of any personal information that might have been on the stolen computer.
Northwest Airlines Inc. also had customer data on the stolen computer, according to company spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch. Like United, Northwest hasn't received any information that customers' personal data has been misused.
Delta Air Lines Inc. and AMR Corp's American Airlines Inc. also confirmed that the stolen computer contained some of their customer data.
Reuters contributed to this report.



Jump to comments

Cybercrime/Hacking

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER
Approximately 60 percent of data migration projects overrun time or budget, while some fail completely. Download this white paper, "Enhancing Your Chance for Successful Data Migration," to learn the critical steps you need to take to execute a data migration project with minimum cost and risk to your business.
WHITE PAPER
Read the Gartner research note to learn why the TCO of a server-based computing deployment used to deliver all applications to users is around 50% lower than that of an unmanaged desktop deployment.
WHITE PAPER
Economic downturns have a tendency to accelerate emerging technologies, boost the adoption of effective solutions, and punish solutions that are not cost competitive or that are out of synch with industry trends. This IDC White Paper presents the results of an IDC survey of 330 companies in Western Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Americas that measures the receptiveness to Linux and takes into consideration changing views driven by the disruptive economic environment that businesses face today.

White Papers & Webcasts

Managing Secure File Transfer to Save Time, Money and IT Resources
Learn how companies are using innovative technology to overcome these challenges and improve user productivity by offloading e-mail attachments and replacing FTP with...

Can Heuristic Technology Help Your Company Fight Viruses?
What is Heuristic Technology and how can it help safeguard your business against viruses? Learn more.  

Security Convergence Equals Network Security Cost Savings
Listen to IBM Internet Security Systems' take on network security convergence.

Why Email Must Operate 24/7 and How to Make This Happen
Learn how to avoid an email outage by implementing a hosted email continuity solution.  

Disaster Recovery 2008: Reduced Costs and Improved Performance
How long can your Enterprise afford to be without your data? With an accelerated disaster recovery program, you never have to answer this...