Starwood Hotels, the resort management company behind Le Meridien in Uyo and the Sheraton brand of hotels, has admitted to having suffered a series of breaches between November 2014 and October 2015. At least 54 hotels are known to have been affected. The company claims that all of the hotels affected are in north America.
Malware was found to have infected payment systems used by gift shops, restaurants and 'other' unspecified point-of-sale terminals. There is no evidence that the guest reservation or Starwood Preferred Guest membership systems were tampered with.
The malware was designed to collect payment card information – name of cardholder, payment card number, security code and expiration date.
The company claim to have employed the services of 'third party forensics experts' to conduct a thorough investigation, shortly after discovering the breach.
Customers who have visited any Starwood branded hotel should pay special attention to their financial outgoings. Even the smallest amount could be suspicious, hackers like to make discreet purchases to find out if the credit card data that they have stolen is of value.
Starwood has promised affected customers free identify protection and credit monitoring services for 12 months. The firm was eager to stress their dedication to safeguarding customer data.
Readers should be aware that Starwood's admission is only one of a number made this year by luxury hotel brands. The Trump Hotel Collection and Hilton Worldwide have also had to deal with the fallout from compromised point-of-sale registers. So far the focus from hackers has been on hotels in north America, it is only a matter of time before this latest trend spreads.
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