IP: Northwest [Airlines] Web customers at risk

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

*** Northwest Web customers at risk

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) - Northwest Airlines is alerting customers who
recently made purchases on its Frequent Flier Web site that their
credit card numbers and personal information were unprotected because
of a programming glitch. Northwest spokesman Jon Austin said the risk
of hackers getting the information is small, but one the airline is
taking seriously. "We want to be able to take care of this ourselves
because it is a problem we created and one we want to help resolve,"
he said. The problem arose when a computer programmer doing
maintenance on the site put the system back on line, but forgot to
restore the security system. When a customer didn't see a small
"lock" icon as he placed his order in mid-December, he notified the
carrier that the information was not secure. Austin did not say
exactly how long the site was unsecured or how many passengers were
affected. Northwest is now notifying passengers who made purchases at
the time about the security lapse. ###