Air India ex-staffer held for hacking into booking system

NEW DELHI: A 23-year-old BCA graduate and former Air India employee was arrested for allegedly hacking into the online booking system of the airline and illegally selling tickets under the frequent flying scheme to travel operators.

Last month, Air India complained to the cyber wing of the Delhi police that some unidentified men had sold Air India tickets by redeeming the miles of genuine flyers. A case was registered.

Additional commissioner of police (EOW), Arun Kampani, said the police found the accused were changing their location frequently. Eventually, police zeroed in on their location in Rajasthan, where they were operating the accounts.

“We found out that one Anitesh Giri was the mastermind. On a tip-off, we raided Nirman Nagar in Jaipur and arrested him,” said Kampani.

Kampani said Giri confessed that he was an IT expert with a BCA degree. Giri claimed he had worked for Kingfisher Airlines and Air India. He knew how to operate the online ticket-booking system, the intranet and internet-based systems of Air India.

“He first understood the systems before hacking into the Loyalty Plus programme of Air India. After gaining access, he obtained administrative user rights and gave these to several other users. With these IDs, he verified hundreds of dormant accounts of Frequent Flyer members and uploaded fraudulently prepared KYC documents,” said Kampani.

Once the dormant accounts were activated, these membership accounts and the Frequent Flyer miles/points accumulated in these accounts for booking airline tickets. These tickets were then sold to various travel agents in Pune, Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, etc.