Jump to content
The World News Media

TheWorldNewsOrg

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    18,651

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    20

 Content Type 

Posts posted by TheWorldNewsOrg

    Marriott claims up to 500 million guests had their records hacked

    in Topics

    Posted

    Marriott (-5.59%) execs woke up Friday morning, meditated for an hour, and then unleashed the bad news: personal info on up to 500 million guests in its Starwood reservation system may have been exposed in a hack. 

    For about 65% of those guests, the compromised personal info could include name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, DOB, and even encrypted credit card numbers.

    • Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson's mea culpa: "We fell short of what our guests deserve and what we expect of ourselves. We are doing everything we can to support our guests, and using lessons learned to be better moving forward."

    If 500 million sounds like a lot to you...

    It is—and it's enough to earn Marriott a spot on the podium for the largest data breach ever (in terms of affected individuals).

    • Remember the earth-shattering Equifax hack last year? 148 million people were affected.
    • But the record holder by a long shot is Yahoo, which compromised 3 billion accounts in 2013. 

     

    Starwood is the hotel company Marriott acquired in 2016 for $13.6 billion. And you've probably snagged a continental breakfast in the lobbies of some of its brands: Westin, Aloft, Sheraton, and others. 

    By tacking on Starwood, Marriott became the world's largest hotel chain. It has over 6,700 properties in 130 countries and territories.

    Next steps, for you and Marriott 

    1. Yesterday, Marriott began sending emails out to affected guests in the Starwood reservation database.
    2. It set up a website and a call center to handle your questions. Plus, it's giving guests the opportunity to enroll in an internet monitoring site free of charge for a year.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Service Confirmation Terms of Use Privacy Policy Guidelines We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.