Hyatt Joins Hotel Chains Targeted by Credit Card Breaches

The Hilton Hotel Corporation has confirmed that it was the target of a payment card breach after malware infected its payment systems. The hotel giant joins others in recent times as an example of malicious hackers targeting hotel groups and their customers.

This is starting to get tedious. Another week, another high-end hotel breach. In a press release yesterday, the Hyatt Hotels Corp announced that it discovered malware in its payment systems. The hotel group also confirmed it launched an investigation upon discovery of the malware and claimed to engage “leading third-party cyber security experts” to aid the hotel group in its investigation.

The statement read:

Hyatt Hotels Corporation today announced that it recently identified malware on computers that operate the payment processing systems for Hyatt-managed locations.

The hotel group counts around 600 properties around the world but did not reveal the hotels impacted. There was no confirmation of any customers affected, nor when the breach occurred.

Hyatt is only the latest hotel group to be targeted by cybercriminals who exploit payment processing systems with malware. In November, Starwood Hotels and resorts revealed that at least 50 properties were affected by a malware resulting in the breach of payment card details of customers.

A day after the Starwood revelation, Hilton Hotels confirmed that it too was the target of a malware affecting payment cards in multiple properties spread across Canada and the U.S.

An unrelated phishing scam also targeted Hotels.com, a popular website for travelers and tourists to book their hotel rooms.

Hyatt, for its part, noted that customers ought to review their statements in their statement.

As always, customers should review their paymend card account statements closely and report any unauthorized charges to their card issuer immediately. Payment card rules generally provide that cardholders are not responsible for unauthorized charges that are timely reported.

The hotel chain also added that it has improved and increased its security to ensure this doesn’t happen again and encouraged customers to use their payment cards at Hyatt properties without concern.