Operational and Technological Threats

In April 2014, US Airways publicly asked a customer asking for her feedback after she had experienced a delay at Portland International Airport. Unfortunately the customer service representative attached a lewd picture of a naked woman in a compromising position with a model airplane to the tweet. Immediately the internet erupted, some in fury but most in embarrassment and amazement. Many speculated about what could have happened. Was an irate employee getting his own back? Had the airline been hacked? The truth was more prosaic — a member of US Airways’ social media team had been trying to flag the picture as inappropriate in its social media marketing management system but had mistakenly included it in his response.