500 Million Identities Have Been Stolen from the Marriott Hotel

December 4, 2018

Not too many realize just how many attempted security breaches occur each and every day throughout the world. Whether it be the millions of attacks that the United States pentagon receives every year, or the thousands that attack hotel customer management systems – cyber attacks are more common than you would think and there’s a big reason why.

The Marriott Hotel’s Security Has Been Breached

It was only November of 2018 that the Marriott Hotel finally admitted that they had been the victim of a cyber attack that managed to successfully obtain over 500,000,000 identities of guests in their systems. The hack dates back at least four years – so it has been recommended for anyone that has stayed in the Marriott Hotel within the last 4 years to:

Have their credit line frozen immediately.
Change any payment methods they may have used if they have not expired already.

What is a Credit Freeze & How Do I Freeze Mine?

A freeze on credit ensures that your credit reports remain inaccessible to most people and institutions, with the following exceptions:

You will still be able to personally access your credit score and reports.
Preexisting creditors & debt collectors will still have access.

In order to freeze your credit, you should ensure that you call all of the major credit monitoring institutions individually and request that they initiate the process on your account to begin freezing your credit.

Here are 3 major credit monitoring institutions that you should call:

Equifax: 800-685-1111.
Experian: 888-397-3742.
TransUnion: 888-909-8872.

Note: Freezing your credit does not save your credit completely from identity thieves. It will definitely make it harder to identity thieves to gain access, but always ensure you are checking your credit score to catch irregularities as soon as possible. It is also possible to go online to each website & request a credit freeze.

The Marriott Hotel & the Starwood Network

After receiving alert of the security breach in September, the Marriott Hotel IT security team was able to discover additional breaches that have remained on their Starwood network since 2014. Cybercriminals were specifically after high profile politicians and other businesspeople.

Starwood networks consist of brands such as: Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, St. Regis, W Hotels, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Element Hotels, Aloft Hotels, The Luxury Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Four Points by Sheraton and Design Hotels, and a few more.

So, What Now?

The Marriott Hotel now faces potential problems from the New York law enforcement, as per a comment from the New York Attorney General’s office: “We’ve opened an investigation into the Marriott data breach. Additionally, under New York law, Marriott was required to provide notification to our office upon discovering the beach they have not done so as of yet.”

While the hotel has publicly apologized, politicians in the United States such as Senator Ron Wyden (R-OR) said that American regulators must issue heavier fines on U.S. companies that have failed to protect citizens’ data.