Christina Spicer  |  November 27, 2019

Category: Legal News

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cathay Pacific Airways airplaneA Canadian consumer alleges in a Cathay Pacific Airways class action lawsuit that 9.4 million passengers’ personal information was exposed in a data breach.

British Columbia resident James Rodney McLean claims that the security breach exposed Cathay Pacific passengers’ names, passport numbers, credit card numbers, and other private information.

According to the Cathay Airways class action lawsuit, McLean and other potential Class Members were informed of the data breach in late October 2018.

McLean says that he received an email on Oct. 27, 2018 informing him that his full name, address, credit card numbers, frequent flyer information, and passport details were exposed in the Cathay Pacific Airways data breach.

Cathay Pacific Airways runs commercial flights worldwide. The company is based in Hong Kong and carries a number of subsidiaries, including Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Limited, which was also affected by the data breach, according to the Cathay class action lawsuit.

The complaint alleges that consumers are required to disclose a great deal of personal information in order to purchase an airline ticket from Cathay Airways, including their full name, date of birth, nationality, address, phone numbers, email, and passport, along with credit card information and, if they have it, a frequent flyer number. This information is stored in Cathay Pacific’s headquarters in Hong Kong.

“The Plaintiff and Class members had direct, transactional relationships with Cathay Pacific,” notes the Cathay class action lawsuit. “The information collected by Cathay Pacific was sensitive and collected in the course of its business. It was reasonably foreseeable that harm such as identity theft could result if such information were disclosed or not securely stored, and it was foreseeable to Cathay Pacific as an experienced participant in the airline industry.”

According to the Cathay Airlines class action lawsuit, the data breach was first detected by the company on March 13, 2018; however, the airline failed to disclose the problem to its affected customers until October.

The Cathay Airways data breach was investigated, according to the complaint. Investigators, according to a report they issued, discovered that the airline failed to protect the sensitive personal information it collected.

“The Report concluded that the Data Breach occurred because Cathay Pacific failed to identify and fix commonly-known and exploitable vulnerabilities in its internet-facing server,” states the complaint.

“The Report also found that Cathay Pacific had failed to apply effective multi-factor authentication to all remote users accessing its IT system involving personal data. The Report further found that should not have produced unencrypted backup files, thereby exposing the personal data of customers to attackers, and should not have retained personal identify information as long as it did.”

McLean claims that he and other potential Class Members suffered a loss of their privacy and now face the threat of identity theft.

The plaintiff seeks to represent all Canadian residents affected by the Cathay Pacific Airways data breach.

Have you been affected by the Cathay data breach? Tell us more!

The lead plaintiff is represented by Joel D. Zanatta, Kevin McLaren, Alexia Majidi, Simon Lin, and Mathew Good of Hammerberg Lawyers LLP.

The Cathay Pacific Airways Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is McLean v. Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, Case No. VLC-S-S-199228, in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Canada.

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