Thursday, 15 January 2015

A thief on the flight

THIEVES have used stolen usernames and passwords to book awards flights using American Airlines and United Airlines customers' miles, the Associated Press reported on Monday. The airlines' own systems don't appear to have been compromised; instead, the thieves nabbed login information from elsewhere on the web and took advantage of the fact that many people use the same credentials across multiple sites.

The number of customers who have actually lost miles appears to be quite small—around three dozen at United and at least two at American, according to the AP. But some 10,000 accounts at American were affected by the breech, and some flyers may find themselves locked out of their accounts while the airline addresses the situation. America's Federal Bureau of Investigation has been informed.

Worry-warts will suggest that this means frequent flyers should keep separate passwords and usernames for each of their accounts. Gulliver's attitude is more blasé. Very few people are capable of remembering scores of...Continue reading

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