Data breach hits major hotel brands in US
1A data breach at 20 US hotels operated by HEI Hotels & Resorts for Starwood, Marriott, Hyatt and InterContinental may have divulged payment card data from tens of thousands of food, drink and other transactions.
The breach follows similar attacks at Hyatt Hotels Corp and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc in recent months, Reuters reported.
Norwalk, Connecticut-based HEI, which is privately held, said malware designed to collect card data was found on HEI’s systems.
The malware was discovered in early to mid-June on payment systems used at restaurants, bars, spas, lobby shops and other facilities at the properties, Chris Daly, a spokesman for HEI, said.
The number of customers affected is difficult to calculate because they might have used their cards multiple times, Daly said. About 8,000 transactions occurred during the affected period at the Hyatt Centric Santa Barbara hotel in California, and about 12,800 at the IHG Intercontinental in Tampa, Florida.
The malware affected 12 Starwood hotels, six Marriott International properties, one Hyatt hotel and one InterContinental hotel. It was active from March 1, 2015 to June 21, 2016, with 14 of the hotels affected after December 2, 2015.
Marriott and IHG declined to comment. Representatives from the other hotel groups did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
HEI said outside experts investigated the breach and determined that hackers might have stolen customer names, account numbers, payment card expiration dates and verification codes. The hackers did not appear to have gained PIN codes, since those are not collected by its system, it added.
Among the properties affected were Starwood’s Westin hotels in Minneapolis; Pasadena, California; Philadelphia; Snowmass, Colorado; Washington, D.C.; and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Also affected were Starwood properties in Arlington, Virginia; Manchester Village, Vermont; San Francisco; Miami; and Nashville, Tennessee.
The Marriott properties affected were in Boca Raton, Florida; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Chicago; San Diego, California; and Minneapolis.