Delta accused of hacking emails

A law suit has been filed in the4 US by the executive director of the Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights claiming that her email accounts had been hacked by Delta Air Lines.

Kate Hanni said in court documents that she had been in an email exchange with a researcher at a firm called Metron, which were looking into flight delays.  Metron had cleared him to talk to Hanni, but then fired him after confronting him with the emails.

When asked about how Metron obtained the information, the company responded by saying that Delta had provided them with the stolen emails, according to the court documents.

Screenshots presented to Metron employees confirm that the emails presented were from Delta.

The Metron employee said that he saw not only the exchanges between Hanni and himself, but also conversations between her and her attorney and emails to journbalists.

Hanni is currently campaigning for an air passengers’ bill of rights which would force airlines to provide food, water and medical attention to passengers stuck in planes waiting to take off for more than three hours.  Hanni claimed that such a bill cost cost an airline the size of Delta around $40 million per year, given the company’s record of delays.

Delta, however, has dismissed the charges as ridiculous and Metron has denied any wrongdoing.

The case shows similarities with other corporate spying cases including HP and Deutsche Telecom.