The breach follows similar attacks at Hyatt Hotels Corp and Starwood
Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc in recent months.
NEW YORK: A data breach at 20 U.S. hotels operated by HEI Hotels & Resorts for Starwood, Marriott, Hyatt and Intercontinental may have divulged
payment card data from tens of thousands of food, drink and other transactions,
HEI said on Sunday.
The breach
follows similar attacks at Hyatt Hotels Corp and Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Worldwide Inc in recent months.
Norwalk,
Connecticut-based HEI, which is privately held, said malware designed to
collect card data was found on HEI's systems.
The malware was
discovered in early to mid-June on payment systems used at restaurants, bars,
spas, lobby shops and other facilities at the properties, Chris Daly, a
spokesman for HEI, said in emails and phone calls.
The number of
customers affected is difficult to calculate because they might have used their
cards multiple times, Daly said. About 8,000 transactions occurred during the
affected period at the Hyatt Centric Santa Barbara hotel in California, and
about 12,800 at the IHG Intercontinental in Tampa, Florida, Daly said.
The malware
affected 12 Starwood hotels, six Marriott International Inc properties, one
Hyatt hotel and one InterContinental Hotels Group PLC hotel. It was active from
March 1, 2015 to June 21, 2016, with 14 of the hotels affected after Dec. 2,
2015, HEI said on its website on Friday.
Marriott and IHG
declined to comment. Representatives from the other hotel groups did not
respond to requests for comment.
HEI said outside
experts investigated the breach and determined that hackers might have stolen
customer names, account numbers, payment card expiration dates and verification
codes. The hackers did not appear to have gained PIN codes, since those are not
collected by its system, it added.
The company has
informed federal authorities and has installed a new payment processing system
that is separate from other parts of its computer network.
Among the
properties affected were Starwood's Westin hotels in Minneapolis; Pasadena,
California; Philadelphia; Snowmass, Colorado; Washington, D.C.; and Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. Also affected were Starwood properties in Arlington,
Virginia; Manchester Village, Vermont; San Francisco; Miami; and Nashville,
Tennessee.
The Marriott properties
affected were in Boca Raton, Florida; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Chicago; San
Diego, California; and Minneapolis.
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