Thomson is the latest travel firm to have a data breach reported in the mainstream UK press, although details are thin on the ground.
This shows that data breaches are now a consumer news story rather than a tech security issue, even if the Thomson incident is nothing on the Ashley Madison scale.
The BBC reported this weekend that a "Data breach by holiday firm Thomson exposes hundreds of passengers." The beeb was shown an email which contained details about 458 Thomson customers from around the UK.
The email allegedly contained the customers' names, address, email, phone number, date of flight and the outstanding balance on the customers' holiday.
Other than that, there are no concrete details in the story about how the breach occurred - such as if the customers concerned booked online or in a high street agency - so travelers don't know if this is a serious flaw in the security of the UK's biggest tour operator or a laptop left on a train.
Thomson said nothing about the incident when approached by Tnooz for some clarification, although its statement talks about an email being sent "in error". By whom, or from which department, in what context, is not specified.
The incident is a cautionary tale for travel firms. Perhaps the Thomson breach has been reported in light of the interest Ashley Madison has generated, or maybe because we are in the UK peak travel season.
Crisis management experts might disagree, but one way for travel firms to set consumers minds at rest is to be more transparent about how such leaks occur and the measures they are taking place to ensure such incidents are not repeated.
Firms do need to have a strategy in place because data security and privacy is now front page news. A few years ago mainstream news outlets inevitably found an "airport getaway chaos" story to frighten us all during busy travel periods - perhaps data breaches are now fulfilling the same function.
NBImage by Shutterstock