Various hotels from California down to Vermont have been victims of a huge data breach that may have leaked payment data from point of sale purchases.
There was a notice about the breach which spans approximately 20 hotels run by HEI Hotels and Resorts which includes hotel chains such as Marriott, Sheraton, and Westin.
According to them, customers at six Westin hotels and three Marriott hotels together with Intercontinental, Renaissance and Hyatt are affected by the breach just to name a few.
The malware by design is supposed to siphon customer payment card data. To be more specific, it contains customer payment card data, including names, card numbers, card expiration dates, and verification codes contained in the said breach.
The malicious software was installed on its payment processing system by its card processor.
The hotel operator didn’t provide much details surrounding the breach but they have said it has been around for months.
However, they have provided a chart showing that the malware has been active and the since March 2015.
They did not comment immediately regarding the matter but have written a press release stating that they have disabled the malware and have been taking steps to remediate the issue. This might result in their transitioning back to stand-alone systems for payment card processing to enhance the security by means of isolation.
There is no complete numeric data to determine the number of victims of this breatch.
It is considered a good practice to regularly check bank statements. Attackers would normally target to steal consumer data from Restaurants, gift shops, spas and hotels.
This is nothing new, but the attacks has become bolder nowadays and people are advised to be more vigilant.
