WestJet sees data breach, online users see other profiles

People on social media are saying that the WestJet phone app is having problems and is causing people to see other accounts.

One such user, Mikayla McPherson, found it concerning and decided to share it with people on Twitter at 4:25 p.m. Wednesday.

McPherson was surprised by the sudden appearance of another profile.

“All of a sudden, you can see there’s a girl named Cassandra and Cassandra’s full name, [her] birthday, WestJet ID, WestJet dollars, WestJet…everything about there about her,” McPherson said.

WestJet has noticed the issue and responded via Twitter, saying the issue has been resolved.

“At 3:53 p.m. MST, a technical issue was identified that impacted guest profiles on the WestJet App. The issue was resolved at 4:27 p.m. MST,” WestJet said on Twitter.

The airline also issued an apology, saying that they take these issues seriously.

“We sincerely apologize to our guests for this disruption and continue to actively investigate the cause of this issue. We take the privacy of our guests extremely seriously and will continue to provide updates to our guests as required.”

Dr. Joel Reardon, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Calgary, says the malfunction was something intentional or on purpose, rather it was because something faulty happened, saying, “Its not that for instance, data was breached in a malicious way, rather some implementation in the back end system likely caused wires to be effectively crossed.”

He also says we need to limit data saving on the web.

“The solution would be simply to not store this information. Buying a flight once with a credit card, there is no real necessity for your credit card information to be store persistently over time, rather to execute that one transaction if you want to buy a flight a year later, that day you offer your credit card again,” Reardon said.

After this airline app error, the affected customers are concerned, while WestJet says they will continue to investigate the cause.

-With files from Tiffany Goodwein