Hackers linked to China have breached the Sabre network,
Bloomberg reported Friday, citing anonymous officials who are familiar with
federal investigations into the matter.
The Sabre breach was part of the same set of attacks that
struck the insurance carrier Anthem in February and the U.S. government's
Office of Personnel Management in June, according to the Bloomberg report.
Sabre confirmed that it has been hacked. However, the company to declined to elaborate on any possible
connection to the Anthem or OPM attacks.
“At this time, we are
not aware that this incident has compromised sensitive protected information,
such as credit card data or personally identifiable information, but our
investigation is ongoing,” Sabre said in a statement. “We are
committed to protecting sensitive information, and we are being assisted by
experts that specialize in cyber security.”
Federal investigators
also told Bloomberg that American Airlines' systems were breached in the attack.
But American spokesman Casey Norton said Friday that there is no evidence that
the company's network has been breached by the assailants who hit Sabre.
“We work really closely with Sabre and other partners. We are redoubling our efforts and taking
a close look at it,” he said in a phone interview.
American Airlines
founded Sabre as a subsidiary 1960, but it was spun off in 2000. Sabre still
operates IP addresses that were registered by American but are no longer linked
to the American system.
The breach of Sabre's
network has the potential to have far-reaching consequences. For the first half
of this year alone, the company reported 208 milion bookings of airlines,
hotels and other travel-related services.