I recently received an email from Flying Blue, the loyalty program for Air France and KLM, informing me about a data breach that may have included my personal information.
The important part of the email to me is:
As a result, the following data was possibly compromised:
– Your first and/or last name
– Your Flying Blue number and level
– Miles balance
– Phone number
– Email address
– Latest transactions
No credit card and/or payment information was exposed.
As an additional security measure, we have locked your account and require that
you change your password in order to regain access. We kindly request you go to
the Air France website and select “Forgot Password” on the log in page in order to
create a new password.
I’m glad that they didn’t get my credit card, but that’s a lot of other information that was hacked. I don’t use Flying Blue and have no points in the program. However, knowing a name, account number, balance, email, phone number and latest transactions could give hackers enough info to take over an account.
When I went to the Flying Blue website, my account was locked.
After entering my email, they offered to send an email or SMS message to reset my password.
I opted for a text message that included a temporary password. Upon logging into my account, I was asked to set a new password. Fortunately, I’ve set a unique password for every loyalty account.
The limitation of only being able to use between 8-12 characters is a bit outdated but remember a few years ago when programs had customers set a 4-digit PIN to access accounts?
Even if you didn’t get an email, I’d recommend you check your Flying Blue account to make sure you have access. It only took a minute to reset my password. The last thing you want to happen is to have your account locked when you’re trying to book a limited-availability award seat.
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