British low-cost airline Easyjet admits that it has been subjected to an advanced hacker attack in which the names and travel details of around nine million customers have been leaked.

– We are contacting the customers whose travel information was disclosed and we recommend that they be extra vigilant, says the group's Swedish manager Johan Lundgren.

In addition, the hackers obtained credit card details for 2,208 customers in the attack in January, according to Easyjet.

According to information provided to the Reuters news agency by two sources, Chinese hackers are suspected of being behind it. Both the software and technology used in the attack on Easyjet have been used in similar attacks on other airlines.

Beijing has repeatedly denied that any offensive cyber operations are being carried out from China and the Chinese embassy in London has not commented on the information to Reuters.

Source: TT