Delta Air Lines Sued Over Alleged E-mail Hacking

alphadogg writes "Delta Air Lines is being sued for allegedly hacking the e-mail account of a passenger rights advocate supporting legislation that would allow access to food, water and toilets during long delays on the tarmac. Kathleen Hanni, executive director of Flyersrights.org, alleges Delta obtained sensitive e-mails and files and used the material in an attempt to derail the 'Airline Passenger's Bill of Rights of 2009,' of which four versions are pending before Congress. The suit was filed on Tuesday in US District Court for the Southern District of Texas and seeks a minimum of $11 million in damages. Flyersrights.org, a nonprofit organization founded in 2007, had been investigating surface delays in air travel."

Headline appears to be inaccurate.

[palegray.net]

According to TFA:

Flyersrights.org, a nonprofit organization founded in 2007, had been investigating surface delays in air travel. According to the suit, Hanni exchanged information with Frederick J. Foreman, who worked for Metron Aviation, which was hired by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to study surface delays. The suit says Foreman provided information to Hanni with permission from Metron, including a report that fingered Delta as having excessive surface delays. Metron is also named in the suit.

During the correspondence, AOL informed Hanni that her e-mails, spreadsheets and lists of donors were being redirected to an unknown destination. Also, files on Hanni's computer became corrupted, the suit says. The hacking began in 2008 and continued through this year.

This does not constitute "hacking" (or even cracking, as it should be termed). Unless I've missed something here, the actual allegation is that information was improperly disclosed, but not that an email account was broken into.

Re:Headline appears to be inaccurate.

[tonywong]

I don't see a smoking gun either.

From the article,

1. *someone* was apparently hacking into Hanni's account.

2. Foreman works for Metron.

3. Foreman exchanges emails with Hanni.

4. Senior VP of Metron calls Foreman into office and shows apparent emails of Hanni and Foreman.

5. Hanni accuses Delta/Metron of being the hackers from point 1?

Kind of a leap to jump from point 4 to point 5. Metron's email policies may give up any reasonable privacy if Foreman used a Metron email account. Then again, the article is a bit light on details.

Re:Headline appears to be inaccurate.

[palegray.net]

Redirection can be accomplished by any number of means, one of which is simply telling a mail client to BCC an email address for all outgoing mail. File corruption happens all the time, and doesn't necessarily mean the accused had anything to do with it. In fact, outright mass file deletion would be more suspect in my book.

Of course, the odds are extremely good that nobody on Slashdot actually knows the full story, but the "evidence" as presented is absurdly weak for a hacking accusation.

Re:Headline appears to be inaccurate.

[MozeeToby]

Foreman said in the affidavit that Gaughan showed him what appeared to be "hacked and stolen e-mail communications" since the material involved the private e-mail accounts of both himself and Hanni.

Emphasis Added.

This isn't a case of the CEO having access to Foreman's company email account, this was his personal account where he was (apparently) sharing more information that the company wanted him to. He was subsequently fired because of those disclosures. Again, disclosures made through a private, non-company owned channel which the company somehow (presumably illegally) had access to.

Re:Headline appears to be inaccurate.

[Anonymous Coward]

TFA isn't that in-depth. Here's another source

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/10/consumer-activist-kate-hanni-a.html [dallasnews.com]

Mr. Gaughan proceeded to show me on his computer monitor what appeared to be hacked and stolen email communications within the last six (6) months or more between Kate Hanni and me, me and Gary Stoller of USA Today, me and Susan Stellin, a freelance reporter, and Kate Hanni and a number of people concerning the Passenger Bill of Rights, excessive surface delays, and other private communications. It was clear that they had email transactions from both of my private email accounts: Hotmail ([e-mail]) and Yahoo ([e-mail]). It was also clear that these emails were from Kate Hanni's private and personal email account ([e-mail]), as well as from Gary Stoller's ([e-mail]) private USA Today account, and Susan Stellin's ([e-mail]) private and personal email account. There were no emails communications from Metron Aviation's email system only communications from information that I gave her as fuel for getting the Passenger Bill of Rights passed in Congress. He said that Delta Airlines sent this information to them.

Re:Headline appears to be inaccurate.

[Achromatic1978]

Kind of a leap to jump from point 4 to point 5. Metron's email policies may give up any reasonable privacy if Foreman used a Metron email account.

You missed a big point in 4 - Foreman believed something nefarious was going on, because among the emails shown to him by the Metron SVP were emails from and to Hanni from parties other than Foreman/Metron, as in:

"How did Metron come to be in possession of email correspondence between Hanni and other people?" Foreman, we get - he could have been using his work account, all that was above board, but the first question is what leads to accusations of hacking.

Re:Headline appears to be inaccurate.

[Romancer]

Not that weak really...

From the article:

Gaughan (Delta) asked Foreman what information he had shared with Hanni, and Foreman said he sent Hanni information that was already public, according to the affidavit.

Foreman said in the affidavit that Gaughan showed him what appeared to be "hacked and stolen e-mail communications" since the material involved the private e-mail accounts of both himself and Hanni. The e-mails also included correspondence between Foreman and Gary Stoller of USA Today and Susan Stellin, a freelance reporter. Foreman was fired on Sept. 25, according to the affidavit.

Private email account correspondence in the hands of a Delta manager with no legal access to the account is not weak evidence. To be corroborated of course like all other claims, but it's not a weak claim if it can be proven. There have been more "hacking" cases like this lately that blur the term to mean "unauthorized" access more than gaining computer access by advanced technological means.

To change the forwarding on an internal company server, sure, fine. But to do it on outside accounts that you do not own, not so fine.

Re:Air vs. Rail

[Anonymous Coward]

I take the Acela and the regular Amtrak trains between DC and NY about 6 times a year. Much better overall experience then flying and as a bonus, the train stations are closer to where I am coming from and going to than the airports. On a personal trip, I've even taken the chinatown bus between them. Still way better overall than flying, it has a scheduled stretch break, and it was only $35 roundtrip for the 4.5 hour trip.

Re:Air vs. Rail

[bcrowell]

I'm emotionally partial to trains, live in a railroad town, and prefer the train to driving or flying. However, there's one big problem with Amtrak for long-distance travel, which is that they have serious problems with arriving on time. They don't own the tracks, so when any other traffic is coming through, the Amtrak train has to pull over on a siding and wait. For the itinerary you found, an 18-hour trip, you should probably expect to add a random number of hours from 0 to 6 into your arrival time. This kind of thing can be especially unpleasant when your train was supposed to arrive at, say, 11 pm, and instead it arrives at 5 in the morning.

Re:Air vs. Rail

[mikael]

We have trains in the UK - for cities less than 100 miles away, it's definitely quicker than taking a plane, as the journey will only take around 3 hours, less time than checking in, security and picking up baggage at an airport. Though there are some disadvantages to long distance train journeys in the UK - some passengers, particularly oil workers, seem to treat trains like public bars, and get drunk before and after coming the oil rigs. Whenever this happens, the air conditioning will seem to be "broken" in the extremely hot mode. The toilets tend to be a mess, with soaking wet floors and toilet paper all over the floor. Also expect delays if someone has misunderstood the free ticket offers, or has been hit by a train. Just because you have reserved a seat, there is no guarantee that it will be free when you get on the train, as the train companies rely on overbooking to keep carriages full.

Prepare to be charged double if you happen to be taking a train journey that crosses through rush-hour times at London, even if you aren't in London at those times. I once tried travelling from the North of England to Dover by train, and was quoted a price of around 200 pounds due to the "travelling through London at peak times" (This would be enough for a weekend holiday from London to New York). Splitting the journey into two rail tickets (peak time outside London, and off-peak time through London) brought the price down to 90 pounds.

For journeys from one end of the country to the other, it is definitely better travelling by plane - the flight will take less than an hour, so you can easily do an afternoon meeting and be back home for tea. Otherwise, it would probably be a three day trip.

Re:Headline appears to be inaccurate.

[Adrian Lopez]

It's a Yahoo server, and it seems the domain is registered to Foreman himself.

Whois record for mmi-gov.com:

[Querying whois.internic.net]
[Redirected to whois.melbourneit.com]
[Querying whois.melbourneit.com]
[whois.melbourneit.com]

Domain Name.......... mmi-gov.com
    Creation Date........ 2004-09-08
    Registration Date.... 2004-09-08
    Expiry Date.......... 2011-09-08
    Organisation Name.... Frederick J Foreman
    Organisation Address. 14525 Chamberry Circle
    Organisation Address.
    Organisation Address. Haymarket
    Organisation Address. 20169
    Organisation Address. VA
    Organisation Address. UNITED STATES

Admin Name........... Frederick J Foreman
    Admin Address........ 14525 Chamberry Circle
    Admin Address........
    Admin Address........ Haymarket
    Admin Address........ 20169
    Admin Address........ VA
    Admin Address........ UNITED STATES
    Admin Email.......... [e-mail]
    Admin Phone.......... [phone]
    Admin Fax............

Tech Name............ YahooDomains TechContact
    Tech Address......... 701 First Ave.
    Tech Address.........
    Tech Address......... Sunnyvale
    Tech Address......... 94089
    Tech Address......... CA
    Tech Address......... UNITED STATES
    Tech Email........... [e-mail]
    Tech Phone........... [phone]
    Tech Fax.............
    Name Server.......... yns1.yahoo.com
    Name Server.......... yns2.yahoo.com

Re:Air vs. Rail

[Rei]

Certainly didn't happen in Japan. Train travel over there is still a dream -- even after the Aum Shinrikyo sarin gas attacks.

Re:Air vs. Rail

[Rei]

drive 25 miles to the airport.

40 KM, you are complaining about 40 KM. any decent city planning will have an express-way or rail line to the airport. 40 KM is less then an hour on a freeway and the middle of the day (10:00-15:00) is not peak hour.

Typical big city tunnel vision. I live in eastern *Iowa*. The airport is between a city of 60,000 and a city of 100,000. And that's pretty much it in the area apart from small towns, corn, soybeans, and hog farms. There are usually three active gates at the airport. There is no practical "peak hour".

Sit in a comfortable seat with individual IFE in the seat back plus laptop and USB power.

A seat like that costs ~$600-$900 cross-country, and wouldn't be available for my first leg at all. Who do you think you are, criticizing me for not taking the red eye and then talking about your first-class style seating? Not taking the red-eye is just a matter of booking well in advance and not insisting on direct flights. Perhaps you have unlimited money, but most of the world doesn't.

Re:Headline appears to be inaccurate.

[Romancer]

What part of PRIVATE EMAIL accounts do you not get?

As an AC posted here previously:

Here's another source:

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/10/consumer-activist-kate-hanni-a.html [dallasnews.com]

Mr. Gaughan proceeded to show me on his computer monitor what appeared to be hacked and stolen email communications within the last six (6) months or more between Kate Hanni and me, me and Gary Stoller of USA Today, me and Susan Stellin, a freelance reporter, and Kate Hanni and a number of people concerning the Passenger Bill of Rights, excessive surface delays, and other private communications. It was clear that they had email transactions from both of my private email accounts: Hotmail ([e-mail]) and Yahoo ([e-mail]). It was also clear that these emails were from Kate Hanni's private and personal email account ([e-mail]), as well as from Gary Stoller's ([e-mail]) private USA Today account, and Susan Stellin's ([e-mail]) private and personal email account. There were no emails communications from Metron Aviation's email system only communications from information that I gave her as fuel for getting the Passenger Bill of Rights passed in Congress. He said that Delta Airlines sent this information to them.

Clear enough?

Re:Air vs. Rail

[rtfa-troll]

Apart from the lower vulnerability of trains already mentioned by other posters, the key thing about planes is that they can be used as guided missiles which makes them dangerous to targets other than themselves. A hijacked train is limited by it's tracks and in most cases has a simple counter measure (switch off the power supply) to stop it once you find out it is misbehaving.

Re:Air vs. Rail

[nomadic]

This may be an extreme case, but most people don't ever bother thinking to check to see whether a train can get them to their destination reasonably. A lot of people use the argument that as a less population-dense country, the US can't support rail. Well, population density arguments apply to *every* mode of public transportation, including air. Less population dense areas means fewer airports and fewer flights.

I check, and without fail the train tends to far more expensive than a flight. Or, takes 12 times (literally) as long.