Starwood hack exposed unencrypted passport details of more than 5m people
The huge hack of Marriott’s Starwood division, which was revealed in November, compromised more than five million unencrypted passport numbers, the hotel giant has said.
The FBI is leading the investigation into the data theft, which officials say points to hackers possibly working for China’s secret service.
In addition to the 5.25 million unencrypted passports, about 20 million encrypted passport numbers were accessed.
Unencrypted passport numbers allow intelligence agencies to scan personal travel and financial history, which could be used for espionage.
Priscilla Moriuchi, an analyst with Recorded Future, who previously worked at the US National Security Agency said: "You can identify things in their past that maybe they don’t want known, points of weakness, blackmail, that type of thing."
Marriott now says data from about 383 million guests was compromised, less than the estimated 500 million first feared.
It said approximately 8.6 million encrypted payment cards were accessed but says there is no evidence any fraud was carried out by a third party.
The company also ticked off another post-merger milestone with the phasing out of the Starwood reservations database at the end of 2018.
All reservations functions are now via the Marriott system.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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