Air Canada says internal system breached, limited employee data accessed

Air Canada disclosed on 20 September 2023 that an unauthorised group had briefly obtained limited access to an internal system holding limited personal information about some employees, together with certain records.

The airline said flight operations systems and customer-facing systems were not affected and that no customer information was accessed. It stated that all of its systems remained fully operational.

Air Canada said it had contacted the people affected, notified the relevant authorities, and worked with cybersecurity experts to strengthen its systems with additional protections. It did not say how many employees were involved, when the intrusion occurred, or how the attackers gained entry. Asked by The Record whether the incident was a byproduct of a ransomware attack, the airline did not respond.

No group publicly claimed the intrusion. The disclosure came during a period of elevated attack activity against Canadian organisations, including denial-of-service attacks on border services and government websites attributed to pro-Russia actors.