Wow – on the scale of breaches, this is a huge one that affects customers all over the world. Marriott has said that, on November 19, 2018, they found out that there was a breach of the Starwood system.
Breaking: Marriott Breach Affected Up to 500 Million Customers
Link: Marriott’s Statement
According to Marriott, “the investigation determined that there was unauthorized access to the database, which contained guest information relating to reservations at Starwood properties* on or before September 10, 2018.”
Here is what Marriott has to say about the breadth of this breach and what possible information was accessed:
“The company has not finished identifying duplicate information in the database, but believes it contains information on up to approximately 500 million guests who made a reservation at a Starwood property. For approximately 327 million of these guests, the information includes some combination of name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest (“SPG”) account information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date, and communication preferences. For some, the information also includes payment card numbers and payment card expiration dates, but the payment card numbers were encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard encryption (AES-128). There are two components needed to decrypt the payment card numbers, and at this point, Marriott has not been able to rule out the possibility that both were taken. For the remaining guests, the information was limited to name and sometimes other data such as mailing address, email address, or other information.”
What Information is Impacted?
Here is the information that they say affects about 327 million guests, with some combination of the following:
- name
- mailing address
- phone number
- email address
- passport number
- Starwood Preferred Guest (“SPG”) account information
- date of birth
- gender
- arrival and departure information
- reservation date
- communication preferences
Credit Card Information?
For some, the information also includes payment card numbers and payment card expiration dates, but the payment card numbers were encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard encryption (AES-128). There are two components needed to decrypt the payment card numbers, and at this point, Marriott has not been able to rule out the possibility that both were taken
This is still a breaking story and there will be many updates throughout the day as Marriott reps start speaking with the press. I will update as the story develops.
