20 hotels in the United States operated by HEI Hotel & Resorts on behalf of Starwood, Marriott, Hyatt, and Intercontinental may have been included in the attack, ZDNet and Reuters report.
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As you would expect, HEI Hotels and Resorts has tendered a formal apology for the incident and has said that it has “mounted a thorough response to investigate and resolve this incident, bolster our data security, and support our customers”.
The infected systems were used in restaurants, bars, spas, shops and other facilities.
HEI in Norwalk, Connecticut, did not specify how many people were likely to have been affected.
In total, the breach impacted 12 Starwood hotels, six Marriott International hotels, one Hyatt hotel, and one InterContinental Hotels Group property.
The number of customers affected is hard to calculate because they might have used their cards multiple times, Daly said.
Those who have stayed at these resorts will have to contact the hotel operator themselves if they believe their data is being used fraudulently due to the breach, as HEI says not enough information is stored to locate past customers. The breach was active until June 21, 2016. They include the Le Meridien San Francisco, Renaissance San Diego Downtown Hotel, The Westin Philadelphia, and The Westin Washington, D.C. City Center. An investigation is underway as the company works with law enforcement, banks, and payment card companies to determine exactly what happened. It said it will continue to review and enhance its security measures. The organisation has not stated whether or not POS transactions for accommodation have been affected. He recommended keeping a close eye on your accounts.
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Both credit cards and debit cards typically come with a zero-liability policy, meant to protect consumers from fraudulent and unauthorized charges. HEI added that it is also working to strengthen data security by reconfiguring parts of its network and payment systems, and that its PoS sites are now safe for payment card transactions. Once you notify one credit bureau, that bureau will notify the others and alerts will appear on all your credit reports. Finding unknown debt or suspicious activity could indicate fraud.
