DataBreaches.Net

Menu
  • About
  • Breach Notification Laws
  • Privacy Policy
  • Transparency Report
Menu

Radisson breach affects N. American guests

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Dissent

The Associated Press has an item about Radisson Hotels & Resorts notifying guests of a breach that involved their credit card numbers. And I see that on Radisson’s site, they have posted a letter to guests:

Radisson values your business and respects the privacy of your information, which is why we wish to inform you that between November 2008 and May 2009, the computer systems of some Radisson® hotels in the U.S. and Canada were accessed without authorization. This unauthorized access was in violation of both civil and criminal laws. Radisson has been coordinating with federal law enforcement to assist in the investigation of this incident. While the number of potentially affected hotels involved in this incident is limited, the data accessed may have included guest information such as the name printed on a guest’s credit card or debit card, a credit or debit card number, and/or a card expiration date.

[…]

They have also posted an FAQ on the incident. The FAQ indicates that they have not yet determined the full scope of the breach in terms of which hotels and which guests are affected, and that they learned of the breach through the credit card companies:

How did Radisson learn about the unauthorized access [hacking/security breach]?
We became aware of the unauthorized access through information provided by payment card companies (Visa, MasterCard, etc), and our payment card processors.

Category: Breach IncidentsBreach TypesBusiness SectorHackNon-U.S.Of NoteU.S.

Post navigation

← Surgeon resigns from Washington University
Hackers break into police computer as sting backfires →

1 thought on “Radisson breach affects N. American guests”

  1. Stephen Wilson Lockstep says:
    August 19, 2009 at 10:37 pm

    Unless the internal networks are fragmented between hotels, it’s not obvious that a breach like this can be isolated for sure to just one part of a global hotel network.

    But setting that concern aside, hotels with booking systems and databases surely represent a cornucopia for identity thieves, far richer than ordinary merchants holding credit card information. For a hotel will often also collect airline membership details, driver licences and – worst of all – passport numbers (in Asian hotels at any rate).

    [From a PCI compliance perspective, hotels are complicated. They have to safeguard credit card numbers for longer than most merchants, in order to hold a booking, and to make sure they can charge for incidentals disovered after the guest has checked out.]

    And the hotel environment throws up a threat vector far worse than war-driving, or the SQL injection attacks evidently used by the Soupnazi hacker Albert Gonzales: the inside job! It’s more than likely that many thousands of itinerant hotel workers all over the world have the opportunity to sneek into an administration office after hours, break into the network, and find their way into the central databases.

    Stephen Wilson, Lockstep.

Comments are closed.

Now more than ever

"Stand with Ukraine:" above raised hands. The illustration is in blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine's flag.

Search

Browse by Categories

Recent Posts

  • B.C. health authority faces class-action lawsuit over 2009 data breach (1)
  • Private Industry Notification: Silent Ransom Group Targeting Law Firms
  • Data Breach Lawsuits Against Chord Specialty Dental Partners Consolidated
  • PA: York County alerts residents of potential data breach
  • FTC Finalizes Order with GoDaddy over Data Security Failures
  • Hacker steals $223 million in Cetus Protocol cryptocurrency heist
  • Operation ENDGAME strikes again: the ransomware kill chain broken at its source
  • Mysterious Database of 184 Million Records Exposes Vast Array of Login Credentials
  • Mysterious hacking group Careto was run by the Spanish government, sources say
  • 16 Defendants Federally Charged in Connection with DanaBot Malware Scheme That Infected Computers Worldwide

No, You Can’t Buy a Post or an Interview

This site does not accept sponsored posts or link-back arrangements. Inquiries about either are ignored.

And despite what some trolls may try to claim: DataBreaches has never accepted even one dime to interview or report on anyone. Nor will DataBreaches ever pay anyone for data or to interview them.

Want to Get Our RSS Feed?

Grab it here:

https://databreaches.net/feed/

RSS Recent Posts on PogoWasRight.org

  • D.C. Federal Court Rules Termination of Democrat PCLOB Members Is Unlawful
  • Meta may continue to train AI with user data, German court says
  • Widow of slain Saudi journalist can’t pursue surveillance claims against Israeli spyware firm
  • Researchers Scrape 2 Billion Discord Messages and Publish Them Online
  • GDPR is cracking: Brussels rewrites its prized privacy law
  • Telegram Gave Authorities Data on More than 20,000 Users
  • Police secretly monitored New Orleans with facial recognition cameras

Have a News Tip?

Email: Tips[at]DataBreaches.net

Signal: +1 516-776-7756

Contact Me

Email: info[at]databreaches.net

Mastodon: Infosec.Exchange/@PogoWasRight

Signal: +1 516-776-7756

DMCA Concern: dmca[at]databreaches.net
© 2009 – 2025 DataBreaches.net and DataBreaches LLC. All rights reserved.