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Virgin Australia Pilot's Unions Concerned Over Data Breach

Direct News Source

VIPA, representing pilots from the Virgin Group (Virgin Australia Airlines, Tiger Airways and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines) are concerned about recent reports of a security beach with CASA's Aviation Security Identification System.

The Australian Federal Police are currently investigating the electronic data breach of Aviation ID Australia's website, oversight of which falls to the regulator CASA.

The breached database contains security sensitive data that is used to issue aviation personnel access ID to security sensitive areas of all of Australia's airports. VIPA's concern with this breach comes just days after our Flight Safety Group issued a warning to all pilots to not participate in the My Health Record, the online medical records database, which launches nationwide this month.

Today VIPA president Captain John Lyons (ret) said:

"In the age of 'big data', VIPA is concerned by the rise in hacking events systematically targeting corporations and government databases. The cyber attack of the Census in 2016, the 2017 hack of an Australian Defence Force contractor and recent ASIC breaches, illustrate the exponential threats created by allowing increasingly more personal data available to government bodies and their industry partners."

The Federal Government will soon start collecting personal medical records Australia wide. VIPA has made inquiries to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner regarding the privacy of medical records for pilots and is seeking further expert advice regarding CASA's handling of personal medical records held with non aviation medical practitioners.

This press release was sourced from Virgin Australia on 13-Jul-2018.