Thousands of payment cards may have been compromised

Feb 1, 2014 08:39 GMT  ·  By

White Lodging, a hotel management company whose portfolio includes Westin, Marriott, Hilton and Sheraton, has suffered a data breach in which thousands of payment cards might have been compromised.

According to Brian Krebs, the banking industry has detected hundreds of fraudulent transactions on cards used at various Marriott hotels since March 23, 2013.

The affected hotels are in Tampa, Chicago, Austin, Los Angeles, Denver and Louisville. The one thing these hotels have in common is that they’re managed by White Lodging.

It’s worth noting that the compromised payment cards have been used at restaurants and gift shops from within the impacted hotels, not at front desks, which use Marriott’s own property management systems.

White Lodging has told Krebs that they’re investigating the reports. Meanwhile, Marriott has also launched an investigation, but the company highlights the fact that its own systems have not been compromised.

News of this incident comes shortly after a number of US retailers admitted suffering data breaches in which credit and debit cards had been stolen by cybercriminals. The list includes Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels Stores.