Marriott suffers data breach, over 5 million guest records stolen
In a major shocker, Marriott International has compromised the personal data of millions of its guests in, what looks like, a hack of its internal systems. The hotel chain issued a press release informing the public about the data breach - second for them in the last three years - that took place sometime in mid-January. Here's all about it.
Hackers stole employee logins
According to the hospitality company, the breach in question took place through an unspecific property system at a franchise hotel of Marriott. The hackers stole login details of two employees and then, weeks later in mid-January, broke in to gain access to information on the guests. The company found out about the incident more than a month later.
Records of over 5 million guests stolen
While Marriott says it has no reason to believe that payment information of the guests was stolen, there is evidence suggesting that other data has been compromised. Specifically, the company says, personal information of about 5.2 million guests has been stolen, including their names, gender, age, addresses, phone numbers, loyalty member data, and other travel information like linked airline loyalty numbers and room preferences.
No word on who compromised the systems
So far, the hotel chain has not said anything about how the login details of its employees were compromised or who carried out the attack. It only says that an investigation on the matter is underway and guests involved are being informed by email. Some are also being offered the option to enroll for personal information monitoring service, IdentityWorks, for free.
This is the second data breach for Marriott International
Notably, this is the second data breach for Marriott in the last three years. The first one took place back in 2018 when Starwood, a subsidiary of Marriott, said that its central reservation system was compromised, leading to the theft of personal data and records of 383 million guests. The company had to pay a fine of $123 million in light of the hack.
