While the Coronavirus disrupts the tourism industry, Marriott is suffering from another bug. On March 30th, the hotel chain reported that over 5.2 million guests may have been compromised back in January 2020, before the Coronavirus.
The company revealed that the breach was the result of a hack on two of their employee’s user logins. These hackers used phishing to essentially trick them into giving them their credentials. As a result, over 5 million guests had their credit card information, addresses and even their personal identifiable information[1]. Though Marriott said they had cyber insurance for this, this is the second time they have been breached in the last 12 months. At the end of 2018, they reported a breach through their subsidiary Starwood. That chain was breached before they were acquired, and a second more damaging breach happened long after Starwood supposedly cleared their servers. 330 Million accounts were compromised, the then second largest breach behind Yahoo’s.[2]
Marriott’s breach highlights the issues people are now facing during this virus outbreak. Be vigilant online and never hand out your information. A cyber policy can mitigate but not fully prevent the damage.
[1] https://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20200331/NEWS06/912333791/Bethesda-Maryland-Marriott-International-reports-another-data-breach-cyber-risks?utm_campaign=BI20200331BreakingNewsAlert&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_campaign=BI20200331BreakingNewsAlert&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ActiveCampaign
[2] https://blog.axisins.com/marriott-breach-affects-hundreds-of-millions
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