Five Hotel Cyber Security Breaches in 2015


Skift Take

With their customer base of affluent, on-the-go guests hotels are the perfect target for hackers.

Five major hotel groups in 2015 have confirmed data breaches at their properties nationally and internationally, underscoring cyber security issues plaguing the hospitality industry. All of these hacks, with some of the activity extending back to 2014, involved malware that infected point of sale systems at gift shops, restaurants, bars, or other on-property products that exposed the identities and credit or debit card information of guests paying for such services. Hilton Worldwide, The Trump Hotel Collection, Starwood, Mandarin Oriental, and White Lodging Properties all confirmed they suffered credit card breaches. Yet attacks are shifting gears, says Rurik Bradbury, chief marketing officer at Trustev, a company that detects and combats online fraud. "Fraud is increasingly shifting t