When I saw “US Airways” appear on California’s public breach report site, I thought it was going to be the ADP-related breach I reported last week. But no, it seems that US Airways had another breach, this one discovered on July 12.
In an undated letter with a file creation date of August 2, Fernand Fernandez writes:
We recently discovered that a small number of Dividend Miles accounts were accessed by unauthorized users who had obtained usernames and passwords for the compromised accounts through means as yet unknown to us. Based upon our review, it is possible that your account may have been affected. The information that the intruders potentially gained access to (to the extent you had provided it to US Airways) includes your: name, address, email address, answers to your security questions, and, in some cases, date of birth, Known Traveler number, and the last four digits of credit cards. In a very limited number of instances, mileage was improperly taken from the accessed accounts, and we are already working with those customers to restore any Dividend Miles improperly taken.
Dividend Miles account profiles do not contain Social Security numbers or Passport numbers, and, at this point, we have no reason to believe that full credit card information was accessed. We are working with U.S. federal law enforcement and continue to research the extent of the unauthorized access.
In order to ensure the security of your account, we have deactivated your current password and provided you with a new password, listed below, which you will be required to enter when you next log in to your Dividend Miles account. Once you have logged in, you can change your password to one of your choosing. We encourage you to use a strong password (e.g., containing 8 characters or more with at least one number, symbol, and/or one capital letter), and we recommend that you not select a password that you use elsewhere on the Internet. We have also disabled the security questions and answers that you previously completed. After logging in to your account, please select new security questions and answers from the drop down list. If you are unable to log in to your account or notice unauthorized changes to your Dividend Miles account please call the Dividend Miles service center number at 1-800-428-4322.
If you use the same username and password for other accounts, especially financial accounts or accounts with personal information, we suggest you change your passwords on those accounts as well. We recommend that you carefully review your statements, account activity, and credit reports to help protect the security of those accounts. The enclosed Attachment A provides additional information regarding protecting yourself against possible identity theft or other financial loss.
Additionally, we have contracted with LifeLock® to provide you a free one year membership in LifeLock’s credit monitoring program. This product helps detect possible misuse of your personal information and provides you with identity protection services focused on identification and resolution of identity theft. You may sign up for this service by following the instructions attached to this letter at Attachment B. You will be able to access this offer at no cost to you up until August 31, 2014.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. US Airways takes information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information. If you have further questions, please call us 1-800-428-4322.
Update: WSOCTV reports that 7,700 were affected.