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British Airways fined $230 million for GDPR data breach

Record fines have been imposed on British Airways in the data theft case. The UK Information Commission office on Monday fined $ 230 million (about Rs 1,580 crore) on the airline on the defaults in the security system. In the cyber attack last year, the card details of more than three lakh 80 thousand customers were stolen from the company’s website and app.

In its decision, the Information Commission office said that it has imposed the highest penalty till date under the new law. British Airways chairman Alex Cruz expressed surprise and disappointment over the heavy penalties.

He said,”British Airways took quick action on the criminal act of stealing customers’ data. There was no evidence of fraud from accounts linked to the theft. We apologize for any inconvenience caused to our customers due to this incident. “

Airlines will appeal

British Airways executive officer Willie Wells said, “We intend to take every reasonable step, including making any urgent appeal to protect the reputation of the airline.” British Airways has 28 days to appeal.

Data was stolen last year

The complaint about the theft of data of customers from British Airways’ website and app was exposed on September 6 and October 25 last year. Then the airlines believed that around three lakh 80 thousand transactions were affected. But the details of the travel or passport were not included in the stolen data.

Facebook was imposed a penalty of five million pounds

In the data theft case, the British Information Bureau had imposed a fine of five million pounds (around Rs 4.30 crore) on Facebook last year. This fine was imposed on the role of Facebook in the data theft case of British firm Cambridge Analytica. Under the law, this was the maximum penalty. Cambridge Analytica acquired data of more than eight million Facebook users via an app.

Strict law to stop data theft in Europe

After the episode of Facebook data theft came to light, strict laws were imposed in 2018 in Europe. Failure to stop data theft under the new European Data Protection Act, the company can be imposed with a penalty of up to four percent of its global income.

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