After a security breach last 2018, Marriott says that another security breach may have have exposed 5.2 million guests information. This is their second data breach in recent years which followed 2018’s leak.
Same as before, personal information such as names, birth dates, and phone numbers may have been taken in the breach, along with language preferences and loyalty account numbers got compromised as per Marriott. There is an ongoing investigation and Marriott said there is “no reason” to believe that payment information got leaked.
They said that they have discovered it late February in an unspecified hotel chain’s system that got compromised. Guest information may have been examined by hackers that acquired the login credentials of two Marriott employees. They are speculating that the incident may have started as early as mid-January.
They have notified their guests whose information may have been taken via email and launched a dedicated website containing resources for those affected. Due to the said incident, they are providing a personal information monitoring service to guests whose information may have been stolen.
Not too long ago, last 2018 they have disclosed their first data breach which impacted up to 500 million guests that stayed with their subsidiary Starwood which they have acquired last 2016. It has been estimated that a total of approximately 327 million records which includes personal information such as mailing addresses and passport numbers were exposed. UK authorities fined Marriott $123 million last year because of this incident.
