Korean Air breach impacts almost 30K employees

Almost 30,000 employees at Korean Air, the flagship carrier of South Korea, had their information stolen following a cyberattack against its former in-flight catering subsidiary KC&D Service, which was acquired by Hahn & Company, a private equity firm, five years ago, according to Korea JoongAng Daily.

Threat actors were able to compromise Korean Air employees' names and bank account numbers, but not any of its customers' data.

"Korean Air takes this incident very seriously, especially since it involves employee data, even if it originated from a third-party vendor that was sold off. We are currently focusing all our efforts on identifying the full scope of the breach and who was affected," said Korean Air Vice Chair Woo Kee-hong.

Additional steps performed by Korean Air in the wake of the third-party breach were also detailed by a company representative, who also noted the airline's plan to bolster personal data protections. Korean Air's disclosure comes just days after fellow South Korean airline Asiana Airlines reported the theft of data from almost 10,000 workers.