Card Breach at Hilton Hotel Properties Under Investigation

Hilton Worldwide has issued an official statement informing its customers that the alleged data breach is currently under investigation.

As reported by Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security, several sources are claiming that Point-of-Sale (PoS) registers utilized by several businesses operating within a large quantity of Hilton Hotel and franchise properties across the United States.

These claims result from the correlation of data discovered throughout the duration of an unknown number of credit card fraud cases. The alleged common point-of-purchase for the cards being flagged as compromised was determined by five different banks, according to internal sources, to be one of several Hilton properties.

These properties include not only just leading Hilton locations but also Hilton locations:

Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Hampton Inn and Suites, and Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts.

In August of this year, Visa alerted several financial institutions to inform them that a breach had been discovered at a physical entity. Visa determined that the breach extended from April 21, 2015 to July 27, 2015.

The breached entities’ identity was not disclosed by Visa, as per their policy when distributing such alerts.

Hilton has issued an official statement that the alleged data breach is currently under investigation. The number of Hilton properties affected by this breach is currently unknown; however, Brian Krebs reports that several in-the-know sources have stated that this breach may have originated back as far as November 2014, and resultant nefarious activity may be ongoing.

In a statement to NBC News, a Hilton Worldwide spokesperson said it was aware of the report.

“Hilton Worldwide is strongly committed to protecting our customers’ credit card information. We have many systems in place and work with some of the top experts in the field to address data security. Unfortunately the possibility of fraudulent credit card activity is all too common for every company in today’s marketplace,” the statement said. “We take any potential issue very seriously, and we are looking into this matter.”

Source: Banks: Card Breach at Hilton Hotel Properties

About the Author Michael Fratello

Edited by Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  Hilton Hotel, card data breach)

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