Australian Travel Agency Breach, 11 January 2024

Melbourne travel agency Inspiring Vacations, exposes customer data after leaving database publicly accessible

The leaked data, includes passport images, travel visa certificates, travel itineraries, and partial credit card numbers

Source: Thousands of Australian passports exposed after travel agency breached

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In a significant blow to Melbourne-based travel agency, Inspiring Vacations, a considerable data breach has resulted in the exposure of personal information of some 112,000 travelers. The leaked data, alarmingly, includes sensitive details such as high-resolution passport images, travel visa certificates, travel itineraries, and partial credit card numbers. The data contained in the database came to a total of 26.8 gigabyte.

The incident was discovered in December last year, with Inspiring Vacations quickly informing its customers of the issue, according to a company statement.

The company said that over the Christmas break, it conducted an in-depth forensic investigation to determine what information may have been accessed. It said that outside of alerting customers and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), it remained quiet on the incident until the end of the investigation.