IHG Investigates Possible Credit Card Data Breaches

Opened data revolves around Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express locations.

Flyers who stayed at Holiday Inns or Holiday Inn Expresses throughout the world may have their credit card information exposed due to a potential data breach affecting parent company InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). In a statement to cybersecurity news website KrebsOnSecurity, the international hotel chain confirmed an ongoing investigation into the potential security break.

“We were made aware of a report of unauthorized charges occurring on some payment cards that were recently used at a small number of U.S.-based hotel locations,” the IHG statement reads. “We immediately launched an investigation, which includes retaining a leading computer security firm to provide us with additional support. We continue to work with the payment card networks.”

Although the international hotel chain runs multiple brands at varying price points, from the high-end InterContinental Hotel to the business-oriented Crowne Plaza, the breach is currently focused around those staying at the Holiday Inn brands. The company has not stated when the breach started, or how many potential guests may be affected by the data leak.

Those who stayed at one of the two hotel brands in the past year are encouraged by IHG to watch their accounts carefully for fraudulent charges applied to their cards. Anyone who notices a suspicious purchase made to their account should immediately contact their issuing bank to resolve the issue.

If the investigation yields information about a data breach, IHG would be at least the fourth major hotel chain to be victim of a data leak over the last two years. Earlier in 2016, Omni Hotels confirmed over 50,000 credit card numbers stolen in a cyberattack. Hilton Hotels, Hyatt Hotels and Trump Hotels also experienced data breach incidents in 2015.

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