Stansted owner confirms cyber breach affecting millions of customers

Manchester Airport Group has confirmed that a cyber security incident has resulted in the theft of personal data belonging to millions of customers. The operator of London Stansted, East Midlands and Manchester airports stated that an unauthorised third party accessed email addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registrations and postcodes. The group reported that approximately 8.7 million individuals are believed to be affected by the breach.

The company said it became aware of the incident on Tuesday and immediately contained the risk. It has since been working with specialist advisors to protect its systems and customers. MAG assured the public that the compromised system did not hold bank or payment details. Operations at the airports remain unaffected, and the group has informed relevant authorities while identifying the hackers involved.

Customers were advised to remain cautious of unexpected communications claiming to be from the airport. The group emphasised that it would never contact individuals unexpectedly to request payment or banking information. An apology was issued for any inconvenience or concern caused by the security failure.

This incident occurs against a backdrop of rising financial costs associated with cyber threats in the United Kingdom. Earlier this year, figures indicated that large UK businesses spent 3.7 billion pounds defending legal action brought by shareholders over previous attacks. Research by Gallagher and the Centre for Economics and Business Research estimated that cyber attacks cost firms with over 250 employees 11.7 billion pounds in total. Litigation represented the second largest expense after direct losses from disrupted trading, which amounted to 5.4 billion pounds.