Ctrip Down for 12 Hours Following Cyber Attack, Services Affected
China’s biggest online travel agency saw its app and website services disrupted starting at 11.09am Thursday following a cyber hack, according to the China Daily.
Ctrip.com, which offers airplane and train tickets, as well as hotel booking services, lost approximately USD 1.07 million per hour as a result, if calculated by the company’s first quarter profit data for 2015. Profit for this quarter was USD 258 million according to GuruFocus. In 2014 their total revenue was RMB 33.2 billion: this adds up to a total of 31.1 percent of the online travel sector market. Roughly 60 million people have a registered account on the website.
Ctrip is still working to revert all damage caused to the servers by the attack. However, if you have used them before, the company guarantees that there was no user data leaked: “According to our investigations, all user data are safe with us right now. There is no danger.”
According to the China Daily, Zhu Zhengyu, an analyst at Analysys International said that “Due to the cyber attack, customers will be unable to check into the hotels they have ordered online. It will also make it impossible for passengers to change flights.” If you are worried that this affects your booking, get in touch with Ctrip on their English hotline 400 619 999.
The cyber attack comes at a time when Internet security is a hot topic, especially in China. Earlier this month an attack which allegedly came from overseas caused China-based internet users to reroute to obscure websites when visiting websites with “Login via Facebook” links. Realistically these events are reminders that the Internet is not always as safe and secure as one might think.
More stories by this author here.
Email: margauxschreurs@truerun.com
Instagram: s.xuagram
Photo: thebrandusa.com