Data breach at chain hotels
Independent hotel firm HEI Hotels, which operates hotels for the nation’s biggest brands such as Marriott, Starwood and Hyatt, says it has been hit by a data breach.
The company says malware was discovered on point of sale systems linked to 20 hotels in 10 states.
The hack was discovered in June and dates back to March 2015 for some hotels.
It affected Hyatt, Sheraton, Marriott and Westin hotels at PoS terminals which are used at retail and food and beverage outlets located in the hotels.
HEI said the malware may have been able to access names, card account numbers, card expiration dates and verification codes.
"We are treating this matter as a top priority, and took steps to address and contain this incident promptly after it was discovered," a company statement said.
Once discovered the company took payment systems off the main network and disabled the malware.
It is continuing to cooperate with law enforcement and advises all customers at the affected hotels to scrutinise their credit card statements for any unauthorised transactions.
"We take this matter and the security of personal information very seriously and we will continue to review and enhance our security measures to further secure our systems," HEI said in a message posted on its website.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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