After acknowledging a data breach in December, Hyatt Hotels Corp has now concluded its investigation of a payment card data breach in a number of hotels in different countries.
Chicago-based hotel chain the Hyatt revealed that it discovered suspicious activity of payment cards at its restaurants between August 13 – December 8, 2015.
Some of the exposure also occurred at spas, golf shops, parking facilities and some hotel front desks, while the predominant unauthorized access was found at hotel restaurants. The company confirmed that some cards that were provided to a sales office were also among those exposed.
As reported by BizJournals, Hyatt released a statement that noted:
The malware was designed to collect payment card data – cardholder name, card number, expiration date and internal verification code – from cards used onside as the data was being routed through affected payment processing systems. There is no indication that other customer information was affected.
The hotel chain also stated that it is currently in the process of sending letters to those customers who may have used a payment card at the Hyatt. The hotel chain is also sending out emails to customers who left behind their email addresses rather than their mailing address.
Chuck Floyd, Hyatt’s global president of operations wrote a message intended for Hyatt customers that stated: “We deeply regret the inconvenience and any concern this may have caused you.”
Lifars previously reported the Hyatt breach when it came to light. At the time, the hotel chain did not reveal much while acknowledging a breach, nor did it reveal the number of affected hotels or customers at the time. It is now revealed through the concluded investigation that some 250 hotels across 50 countries were impacted in the attack, making it among the widest breaches in recent memory. The Wall Street Journal put together a list of the 250 hotels impacted by the breach.
Related read: Hyatt Joins Hotel Chains Targeted by Credit Card Breaches
Hyatt is also offering a free year of credit card monitoring for those who may have been impacted by the data breach.
If you are a Hyatt customer with questions, you can visit www.hyatt.com/protectingourcustomers or call 1-877-218-3036 (U.S. and Canada) and +1-814-201-3665 (International) from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST.
Image credit: Wikimedia.
