(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General Tong, along with the attorneys general of 27 states, has entered into a settlement with Sabre Corp. that resolves an investigation into the 2017 data breach of Sabre Hospitality Solutions’ hotel booking system. The breach exposed the data of approximately 1.3 million credit cards. The settlement requires a payment of $2.4 million, of which the State of Connecticut will receive $174,724.78 and injunctive relief.
Sabre Hospitality Solutions, a business segment of Sabre, operates the SynXis Central Reservation system, which facilitates the booking of hotel reservations. SynXis connects business travel coordinators, travel agencies, and online travel booking companies on one end to Sabre’s hotel customers on the other. On June 6, 2017, Sabre informed its hotel customers of a data breach that had occurred between August 2016 and March 2017, which the business had disclosed in a 10-Q SEC filing the month before. Notice to consumers was provided by the hotels, resulting in some notices being issued as late as 2018, and some consumers receiving multiple notices stemming from the same breach.
“Sabre had an obligation to customers to safeguard credit card information in its possession, and they failed. When their system was breached, Sabre took months and in some cases years to provide information to permit notification to consumers—an unacceptable delay that left consumers unknowingly exposed. Sabre will pay a $2.4 million penalty to the states, and has also agreed to strong protections going forward to ensure this lapse in security and communication never occurs again,” said Attorney General Tong.
The settlement requires Sabre to include language in future contracts that specifies the roles and responsibilities of both parties in the event of a breach. It also requires Sabre to try to determine whether its customers have provided notice to consumers, and to provide the attorneys general a list of all the customers that it has notified. In addition, the settlement requires that Sabre implement and maintain a comprehensive information security program, implement a written incident response and data breach notification plan, implement specific security requirements, and undergo a third-party security assessment.
Joining Attorney General Tong in this settlement are the attorneys general of Vermont, Arkansas, Illinois, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington.
Assistant attorneys general Michele Lucan, John Neumon, Áine DeMeo, and Jeremy Pearlman, Head of the Privacy and Data Security Department, assisted the Attorney General in this matter.
Source: Attorney General Tong