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British Airways has announced a data breach and if you’re affected, they are recommending you contact your bank immediately.
This theft doesn’t appear to have impacted everyone who has a British Airways account, but rather only those folks who made a booking from August 21 through September 5, 2018.
This includes bookings made on the British Airways website and mobile app. Personal and financial information was stolen. However, according to British Airways, your passport and travel information is safe.
British Airways is asking you to contact your bank or credit card provider if you made a reservation on the website or mobile app between 10:58 pm British Summer Time on August 21, 2018, through 9:45 pm British Summer Time on September 5, 2018.
If that’s you, I’d suggest canceling your affected debit or credit cards immediately and letting the bank know what’s going on. Also, be sure to change your British Airways password. This is especially important if you use the same password for more than one account!
Even though I’m not impacted by this, I plan on changing my British Airways password just to be safe.
This won’t affect any travel, today or in the future. And British Airways will be contacting customers and managing claims on a case-by-case basis.
British Airways has set up an FAQ page here.
Data breaches like this are one reason I prefer to use a credit card over a debit card. It’s much easier to get the bank to cancel a fraudulent credit card transaction than it is to get them to redeposit money paid out on a debit card transaction.