CATHAY SHARES DIVE TO 9-YEAR LOW
Plunge follows news hackers accessed data of 9.4m passengers in March
SHARES of Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd slid nearly seven per cent to a nineyear low yesterday after it said data of about 9.4 million passengers of Cathay and its unit, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Ltd, had been accessed without authorisation.
Cathay said late on Wednesday in addition to 860,000 passport numbers and about 245,000 Hong Kong identity card numbers, the hackers accessed 403 expired credit card numbers and 27 credit card numbers with no card verification value.
The company said it discovered suspicious activity on its network in March this year and investigations in early May confirmed that certain personal data had been accessed.
Hong Kong’s privacy commission yesterday expressed serious concern over the data breach and urged the airline to notify passengers affected by the leak as soon as possible and provide details immediately.
Shares of Cathay Pacific slid as much as 6.8 per cent yesterday to HK$9.90 (RM5.27), their lowest in nine years. That compared with a two per cent fall for the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
“People are concerned about why it took so long for them to make an announcement,” said Linus Yip, chief strategist at First Shanghai Securities.
Cathay Pacific’s chief customer and commercial officer, Paul Loo, defended the length of time it took the airline to alert affected passengers.
Cathay said the police had been notified about the breach and there was no evidence that any personal information had been misused. However, analysts were cautious.
“We expect its share price to remain jittery in the near term,” said BOCOM International’s Geoffrey Cheng in a research note. “We will revisit our earnings forecasts and review our rating for Cathay soon.”
The data breach comes as the airline is undergoing a turnaround designed to cut costs and increase revenue, after back-toback years of losses, to allow it to better compete against rivals from the Middle East, mainland China and budget airlines.
In August, Cathay posted a narrower half-year loss on a strong rise in airfares and cargo rates and flagged expectations for a better second half despite economic headwinds from mounting United States-China trade tensions.