Marriott, the largest hotel chain in the world, has revealed that in the database of the system of reserves of its subsidiary, Starwood, there was an intrusion that exposed personal information of up to 500 million customers all over the world. This access is not allowed to be traced back to 2014, but was not detected until the last month of September and until last week not met its scope. Shares of Marriott were down 5% before the opening of Wall Street.
The company reports that in the majority of cases, hackers have gained access to customer information (names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, passport numbers and itineraries) that stayed in their hotels. Do not rule out that the intruders may also gain access to data related to credit cards.
Marriott ensures that it is doing all it can to resolve the situation and help their customers. The security gap was detected two months ago with an internal tool. But it took Asyabahis several weeks to track all of the information potentially affected, and determine what type of content could have been compromised.
After the internal investigation it was determined that a third party had access to the database, copied information that was not encrypted, and you tried to steal. Marriott acquired Starwood two years ago to create a giant with more than a million rooms all over the planet. Paid for it 13.600 billion, after a bidding war that lasted several months with the conglomerate chinese Anbang.
Marriott has created a web site (info.starwoodhotels.com) and a call center to inform customers. Also, send emails to those affected and allow for access without charge to the service WebWatcher to check if their personal data are used. Starwood has among its brands, Sheraton hotels, Westin, Le Méridien and Four Points.