Airline giant Qantas is bracing for the fallout from a massive cyberattack that has swept up nearly 40 major corporations, with hackers threatening to leak sensitive passenger data unless ransoms are paid by Friday.

Hacker collective Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters claims to have stolen almost 1 billion records by targeting customers of cloud technology giant Salesforce. Their weapon of choice? – “Vishing” or voice phishing – where hackers pose as legitimate employees and call company IT help desks, convincing unsuspecting staff to grant them access.

The group has given high-profile companies including Qantas, Toyota, Disney and Ikea just days to begin ransom negotiations. The stolen data reportedly includes customer dates of birth, passport numbers and purchase histories collected between A

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