Travelers’ Rewards Points and Miles Vulnerable to Potential Hacker Attacks

Mostly, hackers are looking to scam you out of your bank account or credit cards.

But they could also deplete your travel rewards card and relieve you of all your hard-earned miles.

Frequent flyer miles and loyalty points can be just as important as currency. Heck, they even made a movie about the accumulation of frequent flyer points called Up in the Air starring George Clooney.

This is worrisome, however.

A trio of cyber-sleuths looked up the company that administers many programs, Points.com, and uncovered some troubling news. The researchers found some apparent vulnerabilities in the system from March to May of this year that could have compromised the points.

That is, hackers could have stolen your reward points.

They could have helped themselves to a nice vacation.

The researchers found that the Points.com system allowed hackers to see account numbers, addresses and phone numbers, among other personal things. For United Airlines, for instance, the researchers found a vulnerability that allowed them to hack the system with a secret password – the password was ‘secret.’

Entity by entity, Points.com is fixing its vulnerabilities, including for United Airlines.

However, it was noted that at one point hackers had the ability to get into any rewards points on the system. This allowed the hackers to grant any points they wanted to whomever they wanted. Points.com said that all problems reported to them were fixed, but there still may be vulnerabilities in the system.

In the meantime, you are advised to keep an eye on your rewards points card like it was a credit card or a bank debit card. Be diligent and look for an unusual activity. A high withdrawal of points or miles that don’t look recognizable is a dead giveaway. Change your password often and make it complex. Utilize two-factor authentication if your password is cracked.