BA fined £ 183m for computer theft of passenger data

British Airways has been fined more than 183 million pounds (843.9 million dirhams) after hackers stole the bank details of hundreds of thousands of passengers.

In a statement released on Monday, the company's parent group, IAG, said the UK's information commissioner's office intended to send the airline a penalty notice under the law. data protection, for a total amount of 183.4 million pounds.

The cyber attack took place over 15 days last year.

Last year, British Airways informed thousands of customers and urged them to cancel their credit cards.

The persons concerned had made bonus bookings with the airline between April 21 and July 28, 2018 and had used a credit card.

Piracy affected 380,000 payments, resulting in a criminal investigation by cyber crime experts from the UK's National Crime Agency.

Last year, IAG said: "Although British Airways does not have conclusive evidence of data deletion from its systems, it is taking a cautious approach in notifying potentially affected customers, advising them to contact their bank or their card provider as a precaution. "

The BA data breach took place after the introduction of the new UK Data Protection Act, which includes the provisions of the European General Data Protection Regulation.

Under the new regulation, the maximum penalty for a business victim of a data breach is a fine of £ 17 million or 4% of the overall business turnover, whichever is greater.