Hackers breach frequent-flyer Lufthansa accounts

The German airlines blocks several accounts after the attack.

Hackers have breached into the customer accounts of Lufthansa to use their miles for purchases, reminiscent of similar incidents involving other top airlines in the past few months.
The German airliner said that it has blocked several accounts after those of some frequent flyers have been hacked.
According to German media reports, the attackers have used a bot net that helped them generate usernames and passwords on numerous computers. The right combinations of credentials were used to access frequent-flyer miles.
DW.de has quoted a Lufthansa spokesperson as telling DPA news agency that it 'had not been able to prevent illicit access to some customer files'.
"We had to lock several hundred customer pages. We believe to have the problem generally under control," he said.
The miles have been credited back to the accounts of the attacked customers, the airlines added.
Attack on Lufthansa comes two weeks after thousands of British Airways frequent-flyer accounts were hacked in March.
American and United airlines reported similar incidents in December. American Airlines said that about 10,000 accounts were hacked while United Airlines confirmed that hackers booked trips or made mileage transactions on about three dozen accounts.