Portugal’s TAP says hackers stole, published passengers' personal data

(Reuters) — Portuguese airline TAP told customers Thursday that hackers had stolen some of their personal data and published it on the dark web, although the state-owned carrier said all payment details appeared to be safe.

TAP said in a letter to customers the cyberattack last month obtained from its servers people's names, nationalities, email and home addresses, phone contacts and frequent flier numbers.

“The release of the personal data via open sources could increase the risk of their illegal use, namely aimed at obtaining other data that could compromise the digital systems in fraudulent attempts such as phishing,” TAP said.

The airline urged customers to be wary of unsolicited contacts requesting personal information and told them not to click on links and attachments in suspicious emails. TAP also recommended changing passwords to stronger ones and said it would abstain from further contact with individual clients about the issue to avoid confusion.