Marriott Data Breach May Impact Up to 5.2 Million Guests

Marriott International recently notified its guests of a property system incident that may have exposed personal information for up to 5.2 million of its visitors.

According to an announcement, at the end of February 2020, the company identified that an unexpected amount of guest information may have been accessed using the login credentials of two employees at a franchise property. The company believes that this activity started in mid-January 2020.

Marriott believes that the following information may have been involved for up to approximately 5.2 million guests, although not all of this information was present for every guest involved:

• Contact details (e.g., name, mailing address, e-mail address, and phone number),
• Loyalty account information (e.g., account number and points balance, but not passwords),
• Additional personal details (e.g., company, gender, and birthday day and month),
• Partnerships and affiliations (e.g., linked airline loyalty programs and numbers),
• Preferences (e.g., stay/room preferences and language preference).

Photo Source: Marriott International

Upon discovery, the company confirmed that the login credentials were disabled, immediately began an investigation, implemented heightened monitoring, and arranged resources to inform and assist guests. Marriott also notified relevant authorities and is supporting their investigations.

Although Marriott’s investigation is ongoing, the company currently has no reason to believe that the information involved included Marriott Bonvoy account passwords or PINs, payment card information, passport information, national IDs, or driver’s license numbers.

Marriott has sent e-mails to guests involved, and set up a dedicated website (www.mysupport.marriott.com) and call center resources with additional information for guests.

Marriott had again experienced a data security incident in 2018, in the Starwood guest reservation database, that involved information on up to approximately 500 million guests.