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Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (0293.HK) shares fell more than 6% Thursday to their lowest level in nine years after data on approximately 9.4 million passengers from Cathay and its unit, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Ltd, were consulted without authorization. .
Cathay said late Wednesday that in addition to the 860,000 passport numbers and about 245,000 Hong Kong ID numbers, hackers had accessed 403 expired credit card numbers and 27 credit card numbers without Card Verification Value (CVV).
The company said it initially discovered a suspicious activity on its network in March 2018 and investigations in early May confirmed that some personal data had been accessed.
The Hong Kong Privacy Commission on Thursday expressed serious concern over the data breach and urged the airline to inform passengers affected by the leak as soon as possible and to explain the details immediately.
Cathay Pacific shares slid more than 6% Thursday to $ 9.95 HK, their lowest level in nine years. This compared to a 2% drop in the Hang Seng (.HSI) benchmark.
It was not immediately known who was at the root of the data breach or what the use of the information could be for.
Cathay said the Hong Kong police had been informed of the violation and that there was no evidence that personal information was misused.
The data breach comes as the airline currently undergoes a turnaround to reduce costs and increase revenues, after consecutive years of losses, to enable it to better compete with rivals in the Middle East, from mainland China and low-cost airlines.
In August, Cathay Pacific recorded a lower loss in the six months following a sharp rise in air freight rates and freight rates and announced expectations for a better second half, despite the economic difficulties related to the rise in trade tensions between the United States and China.
The crackdown also comes more than a month after British Airways apologized for stealing credit card details from hundreds of thousands of customers over a two-week period following an attack on its website and website. application.
(Report by Anne Marie Roantree and Donny Kwok; mounting by Richard Pullin)
-Reuters
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