Marriott International has disclosed that the data of more than 500 million guests was compromised in September this year which happens to be the biggest in the last 5 years. The compromised details include Passport info, credit card details, and names & phone numbers of guests who checked into the Starwood properties on or before Sept 10 this year.
Sources reporting to Cybersecurity Insiders say that the intrusion into the network of Starwood Hotels & Resorts was taking place since 2014, but was detected recently through a data audit conducted by Marriott authorities who now confirm that all the guest info was copied after decryption. And the hackers also tried to wipe out the entire database with a malware.
The company confirmed on Friday that credit card numbers and their expiry details could have been compromised in the incident. And added to its statement that for over 327 people, details such as names, mailing address, phone numbers, email addresses, passport numbers, Starwood premium customer info, date of birth info, gender, arrival, and departure info, reservation date, flight numbers, and communication preferences could have accessed by hackers.
More details will be updated shortly!
Note 1- Starwood merged with Marriott almost 2 years ago and attempts to combine the loyalty programmes were barred due to technical issues.
Note 2- Currently, the following hotels and resorts are under the hood of Starwood- St. Regis, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Element Hotels, Aloft Hotels, The Luxury Collection, Le Meridian Hotels & Resorts, Four Points by Sheraton, Design Hotels, W. Hotels and the Tribute Portfolio.
Note 3– Arne Sorenson the CEO of Starwood said in a statement yesterday that the full details of the cyber attack are yet to reach his insight.
