Malware Found in Starwood Hotels’ Point-of-Sale Systems

Malware was found on some point-of-sale systems at Starwood Hotels; the company says no customer data was compromised.

According to a report today, Starwood Hotels found that some of the North American hotel systems had been infected with malware. The breach enabled unauthorized sources to obtain customer credit card information, but it was shut down before any real damage could be done.

The company discovered the malware, immediately launched an investigation and neutralized the threat. Some hotel restaurants, gift shops and other point-of-sale systems were targeted in an effort to get credit card numbers, expiration dates, security codes, and cardholder names.

“Protecting our customers’ information is critically important to Starwood and we take this issue extremely seriously,” said Sergio Rivera, Starwood President, The Americas, in a release. “Quickly after we became aware of the possible issue, we took prompt action to determine the facts. We have been working closely with law enforcement authorities and have been coordinating our efforts with the payment card organizations. We want to assure our customers that we have implemented additional security measures to help prevent this type of crime from reoccurring.”

Although the malware no longer poses a threat to customers, Starwood is encouraging guests past and present to check their credit card statements carefully for any potential breach. The company has also published a list of hotel names and locations where the malware was detected, including the date range it was on each hotel’s system. Some hotels had it for around five months before it was detected and remedied.

[Photo: Getty]