Author: Chris Kodo

When Caio Saldanha and his fiancée Jessica Furlan arrived in the US in early March, they were looking forward to a new life working onboard a lavish cruise ship.

Working on Royal Caribbean’s Celebrity Infinity was supposed to be a fresh start, the next chapter in their lives together.

On 13 March, the date of the cruise’s departure, the ship became their home. Little did they know then, it would prove to be their prison.

A day after the couple, from São Paulo, Brazil, boarded, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a no-sail order for all cruise ships. On the same day, Royal Caribbean canceled all its operations around the world. In just 24 hours, the coronavirus pandemic had upended their lives.

“This was the first day,” Mr Saldanha, a 31-year-old DJ, told the BBC. “It was a shocking surprise. This was not the plan. It was a nightmare.”

More than two months later, Mr Saldanha and his 29-year-old fiancée remain stranded at sea, albeit on a different cruise ship. They desperately want to go home but to their frustration, they, like tens of thousands of other cruise-crew members, have been unable to do so.

While cruise passengers were gradually repatriated through March and April, many crew members stayed behind. Cruise operations were initially paused for 30 days – ample time, it seemed, for the pandemic to blow over. The pandemic did no such thing, leaving crew members in limbo as 30 days turned into 40, 50, 60 and more.

The CDC extended its no-sail order and countries, concerned about the spread of the coronavirus, shut down their ports to cruise ships.

With no end to the pandemic in sight, there are now an estimated 54,200 crew members on board 85 cruise ships in US waters, the US Coast Guard told the BBC. Many more are stranded at sea elsewhere. In an article on 17 May, the Miami Herald newspaper put the number at more than 100,000 around the world.

Royal Caribbean, a US-based company, says it has arranged for British crew members to be flown home from Miami. A chartered plane carrying Royal Caribbean staff landed at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday afternoon.

But given the numbers, bringing everyone home has proved logistically challenging for cruise firms. US operators must abide by strict CDC health requirements for repatriating crew on special charter flights.

Their ability to uphold that responsibility has been called into question by crew in recent weeks. The recent deaths of several crew members has deepened the sense of unease.

Last month, a crew member went overboard from Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas ship. The company told the BBC it was “assisting authorities with their investigation”, but did not confirm the person had died.

More recently another firm, Princess Cruises, said a Ukrainian crew member had died after apparently jumping from the Regal Princess near the Netherlands.

One Canadian crew member says the deaths have heightened anxiety on board Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas, where protests erupted last week. The 36-year-old, who does not wish to be named, says “the atmosphere was very tense”.

“I personally didn’t go out much. I didn’t want to be involved with it because people were quite angry,” the Canadian crew member told the BBC.

Hundreds of protesters gathered on the deck, where they hung banners bearing aggrieved messages. One, draped over the entrance to the swimming pool, read: “How many more suicides do we need?”

No suicides have been confirmed by Royal Caribbean or any other cruise-ship operators. Royal Caribbean says a confidential mental health helpline is available for crew to call 24 hours a day.

The spark for the protests, according to the Canadian crew member, was the postponement of a plan to repatriate staff. He says for some employees, repatriation arrangements had been delayed or changed several times, causing confusion and anger. On one ship, Romanian crew members held a hunger strike in protest.

Jim Walker, a Miami-based maritime lawyer who is assisting crew, says the cruise operator has “calmed everyone down”, but adds that many were “still in the dark”.

“Legally, the repatriation of people is one of the most fundamental, long-standing maritime rights there are. You can’t keep people hostages on a ship. You can’t abandon them at sea,” Mr Walker told the BBC.

On Monday night, Denise Gruby, the mother of a British crew member, said her son had all but given up hope of being flown home. She said her son, 37-year-old entertainer Christopher Gruby, had opted to stay on board the Majesty of the Seas, which is due to depart from Miami to Southampton on Tuesday.

“They’ve just been abandoned. It must be an awful position to be in,” Ms Gruby told the BBC.

Other crew members have been more fortunate. A Romanian employee, who wished to remain anonymous, says Royal Caribbean paid for him to fly home on 22 February. He expected to be reunited with his boyfriend, who also worked for the company, a few months later. But the agonising wait goes on.

“My boyfriend is trapped on board the Majesty of the Seas. I can see that he’s not in the best mood, but I’m trying to cheer him up,” he says.

Source: bbc.com

EasyJet has admitted that a “highly sophisticated cyber-attack” has affected approximately nine million customers.

It said email addresses and travel details had been stolen and that 2,208 customers had also had their credit card details “accessed”.

The firm has informed the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office while it investigates the breach.

EasyJet first became aware of the attack in January.

It told the BBC that it was only able to notify customers whose credit card details were stolen in early April.

“This was a highly sophisticated attacker. It took time to understand the scope of the attack and to identify who had been impacted,” the airline told the BBC.

“We could only inform people once the investigation had progressed enough that we were able to identify whether any individuals have been affected, then who had been impacted and what information had been accessed.”

Stolen credit card data included the three digital security code – known as the CVV number – on the back of the card itself.

EasyJet added that it had gone public now in order to warn the nine million customers whose email addresses had been stolen to be wary of phishing attacks.

It said that it would notify everyone affected by 26 May.

It did not provide details about the nature of the attack or the motives, but said its investigation suggested hackers were targeting “company intellectual property” rather than information that could be used in identity theft.

“There is no evidence that any personal information of any nature has been misused, however, on the recommendation of the ICO, we are communicating with the approximately nine million customers whose travel details were accessed to advise them of protective steps to minimise any risk of potential phishing.

“We are advising customers to be cautious of any communications purporting to come from EasyJet or EasyJet Holidays.”

In response to the breach, the ICO said that it was investigating.

“People have a right to expect that organisations will handle their personal information securely and responsibly. When that doesn’t happen, we will investigate and take robust action where necessary.”

It also warned people to be on the lookout for phishing attacks and directed them to its advice on its website on how to spot such scams.

Phishing

Phishing attempts – which see criminals sending emails with links to fake web pages that steal personal data – have risen exponentially during the coronavirus crisis.

Google is blocking more than 100 million phishing emails every day to Gmail users.

It is likely that hackers will take advantage of the fact people are cancelling flights because of the uncertainty related to the spread of Covid-19, said Ray Walsh, a digital privacy expert at ProPrivacy.

“Anybody who has ever purchased an EasyJet flight is advised to be extremely wary when opening emails from now on,” he said.

“Phishing emails that leverage data stolen during the attack could be used as an attack vector at any point in the future.

“As a result, it is important for customers to be vigilant whenever they receive unsolicited emails or emails that appear to be from EasyJet, as these could be fake emails which link to cloned websites designed to steal your data.”

Turbulent times

The coronavirus pandemic has meant an end to much global travel, leaving airlines struggling financially.

“These are already turbulent times for all companies within the aviation industry but the situation has just got significantly worse for EasyJet,” said Mike Fenton, chief executive of threat detection firm Redscan.

“To add to the company’s woes, it is now has to explain how the personal records of nine million customers were able to be accessed.

“When it comes to cyber security, the airline industry doesn’t have a great record. The British Airways breach in 2018 should have been a wake-up call and passenger confidence is likely to be at an all-time low after this.”

Source: bbc.com