According to Krebs, the compromise did not affect the organisation’s reservation systems, but rather the point-of-sale (POS) terminals used in its restaurants, coffee bars, gift shops and other outlets at its properties.
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“In August, Visa sent confidential alerts to numerous financial institutions warning of a breach at a bricks and mortar entity that is known to have extended from 21 April 2015 to 27 July 2015”.
The students, from the Ayotzinapa teachers college in rural Guerrero, travelled to the city of Iguala on Sept 26 a year ago, to commandeer buses to join a commemoration in Mexico City.
“Hilton Worldwide is strongly committed to protecting our customers’ credit card information”, a spokesperson wrote.
The Hilton Hotel properties in the United States have begun an official investigation into the incidents, and it isn’t looking so promising.
Card numbers were included in the alert to the banks, but Visa wasn’t able to reveal the business as it goes against the company’s policy.
Five different banks have determined that the cards in the alert had all been used at Hilton, according to sources cited by Krebs.
Krebs has a statement from the Hilton organisation in which the firm defended its security practices, and revealed that it is aware of the potential problem and is looking into it. This is a common theme among the breached, and should soon become part of mission statements.
“Unfortunately the possibility of fraudulent credit-card activity is all too common for every company in today’s marketplace”, it said.
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“It remains unclear how many Hilton properties may be affected by this apparent breach”. Although nothing is official yet, several financial institutes told KrebsOnSecurity that the breach may date as far back as November 2014, and still might be at risk.
