Hotel Data Breach Possibly Compromises Data Of Thousands

On August 12, HEI Hotels & Resorts, which manages over 50 luxury hotels across the United States, announced a security incident that may have compromised the personal information of customers who have made purchases on its properties.

As per the company’s official statement, “it appears that unauthorized individuals installed malicious software on our payment processing systems at certain properties designed to capture payment card information as it was routed through these systems.” Data breaches stem as far back as March of 2015 to as recently as June of this year.

The company went on to state that the malware could “could have affected payment card data, including name, payment, card account number, card expiration date, and verification code.” The malicious software was discovered in early to mid-June and was found on payment systems in bars, spas, restaurants, and other amenities.

In response to the incident, HEI alerted federal authorities and has in the meantime installed a new payment system that is entirely separate from the rest of its network.

The list of properties affected can be seen here, and spans locations in 10 states on and between the East and West coasts. It includes hotels such as Hyatt (NYSE:H) , InterContinental (NYSE:IHG) , and Marriott (NASDAQ:MAR) , amongst others.

Information is Power

The 21^st century has seen an unprecedented technological revolution. It has seen the rise of the market known as the “Internet of Things” (IoT), which our team extensively discussed here. IoT describes the increased connectivity of household and commercial items through the internet and cloud-based services.

Just as the IoT has altered consumer behavior and streamlined otherwise tedious tasks, it has also left consumers more exposed. The more technological services consumers use, the more personal data is collected. This data is quite valuable, not only to advertisers, but to hackers who can use it to steal identities and engage in less-than-savory activities.

HEI’s data breach is not an isolated event. Recent news has seen other companies fall victim to the same type of attack, with organizations as high up as the Democratic National Committee seeing thousands of its emails leaked by hackers as well.

Although technology makes life easier, consumers should be weary of how much personal data they release on a day-to-day basis.