Marriott reveals data breach for up to 500 million guests
The hacking affects consumers who have booked at Starwood hotels since 2014. The company’s chief executive said: ‘We fell short of what our guests deserve.’
The world’s largest hotel chain just revealed what might be the second-largest data breach in history.
On Friday, Marriott revealed hackers broke into the reservation system of its Starwood hotel brands, which include Sheraton, Starwood’s Westin, Four Points by Sheraton, Aloft, St. Regis, W Hotels and Le Méridien. The hacked database contained information for up to 500 million customers.
The company announced in a statement that it discovered the hack on Sept. 8, just weeks after officially ( and controversially ) merging the Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) loyalty programs. It managed to decrypt the information and determine the scope of the breach on Nov. 19. The Marriott network of properties are reportedly not affected.
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