Since two years ago the first report on FT that IHG member had their account hacked with points spent, there has been on off reports here and other forums that IHG member found their points stolen and IHG has to issue new membership number and credit member with points balance.

What IHG had in denial is that whether there is any data breach.

From the information posted in another forum, I would like to inform all IHG member here to check their account and do the following:
1, Change email address in your membership account to a new email address;
2, Change your IHG password every 3-4 months;
3, Install IHG app and check your balance and reservation details daily.

According to the post, LINK HERE, [In Chinese please use Google Translate or Bing Translator], the poster claimed:
1, Over 100,000 membership details were posted daily in dark web and membership information is for sale
2, Hackers profit from resale of the redemption rooms or redeem the points for cash cards or gift cards
3, Hackers will change your password and email address to test whether you have knowledge that your account was hacked or not. If password was recovered within a week, they would abandon the attempt of profiting. Otherwise they will use the account as it seems to be dormant.

Who is at risk?

According to the post, almost every IHG account is at risk. One of the early sign that your account is compromised is that you can not log in to your account for a short period of time. So check your account frequently. The poster believes that the account with large points balance and the owner does not check balance frequently would be at the most risk of points stolen.

Why IHG does not disclose the possibilities of data breach?

I don't know. And nobody knows. Maybe even IHG itself does not know it yet (I highly doubt but I am in no position to speculate). The best thing to do at this moment is to change your password frequently and use a different email address as well as check your account very frequently.

If you see any unusual account history do not hesitate to call IHG directly.

I would like to state that all information above is from a third party source so I am in no position to verify the information above, although I personally write this post. I have nothing to do with any of the actions mentioned above and have no connection with the original poster. I am simply passing the information I think is extremely valuable to follow FTers that I think in risk of being hacked. Mod please contact me if you feel any needs to modify or delete this post. Of course I would like to see IHG to public acknowledge the deficient of their IT system or clarify whether a data breach happened in the past.