Hackers steal knowledge belonging to 1000’s of pilot candidates at American and Southwest airways

Private data for greater than 8,000 candidates to grow to be pilots at American Airways and Southwest Airways was stolen when hackers broke right into a database maintained by a recruiting firm.

The breach at Austin, Texas-based Pilot Credentials occurred April 30, and the airways discovered about it on Could 3. They notified affected job seekers final week.

Based on letters that the airways had been required to file with regulators in Maine, hackers gained entry to names, delivery dates, Social Safety and passport numbers, and driver’s and pilot-license numbers of candidates for pilot and cadet jobs.

Based on filings, 5,745 candidates to American and three,009 at Southwest had been affected.

American mentioned it had no proof that the knowledge was used for fraud or id theft, however it supplied every applicant two years of protection from a service designed to guard folks from id theft.

The airways mentioned that for the reason that breach, they’ve run their recruitment work by way of web sites that they run as an alternative of counting on an one other firm.

Fort Value, Texas-based American and Dallas-based Southwest say they’re working with a regulation enforcement investigation.