• Qantas confirmed a data leak affecting 5.7 million customers following a July cyber breach.
• The airline revealed that sensitive information, including names, email addresses, and birth dates, was accessed by hackers.
• The hacker group Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters is linked to the data leak, which occurred after a ransom deadline was missed.
• Qantas has secured a legal injunction to prevent unauthorized access to the stolen data.
• This incident is considered one of Australia's largest cyber breaches in recent years.

Australian airline Qantas announced that data from approximately 5.7 million customers has been leaked online following a major cyberattack in July. The breach involved the theft of sensitive data via a third-party contact center, with Qantas stating that hackers accessed customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, and birthdays, but credit card details and passport numbers were not compromised, according to Channel News Asia.

The airline previously indicated that over a million customers had their sensitive details accessed, while an additional four million had merely names and email addresses taken. This incident is now regarded as one of the largest cyber breaches in Australia, comparable to other major attacks on organizations like Optus and Medibank, which resulted in the introduction of mandatory cybersecurity laws, as highlighted by Reuters and India Times.

Qantas mentioned that it is collaborating with cybersecurity experts to assess the scope of the data released and has secured a legal injunction aimed at preventing any further unauthorized access or publication of the stolen data, according to India Times and Reuters.

The data leak has been attributed to the hacker group Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, which reportedly acted after the expiration of a ransom deadline. Qantas, while not commenting specifically on ransom aspects, stated that it is investigating the data leak's full implications, as reported by India Times and Channel News Asia.