In Australia yesterday, as reported by abc.net.au, a third party supplier of airport security ID cards was hacked. The breach isn’t necessarily big in number, but it’s serious in terms of airport security as the ID cards are designed to stop criminals or terrorists from accessing planes and other restricted airport zones. Australia’s airports and the people who work at them are considered some of the most sensitive elements of Australia’s national security infrastructure.
Pravin Kothari, Founder and CEO at CipherCloud:
“In any context, the Aviation ID Australia data breach is a risk for airport security. The cyber attackers may have access to the database for the cards that are created and used to authenticate authorized personnel on the airport grounds. These ID cards are designed to stop unauthorized parties from accessing planes and other sensitive and restricted airport zones. Did the cyber attackers also steal the graphics files and images necessary to reproduce and clone these ID cards?
Beyond the security risks, the data to produce the ID cards seems to have included names of the airport personnel, addresses, birth certificate numbers, driver’s license numbers, Medicare card numbers and more. This comprehensive data could enable ID theft and even worse, financial fraud.”
