PROTECTING YOUR FINANCIAL SECURITY ON-THE-GO HOLIDAY INN PARENT CONFIRMS DATA BREACH AT NEARLY 1,200 HOTELS InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has confirmed that front desk payment terminals in at least 1,181 hotel locations nationwide were breached last fall. Malware that successfully stole payment card data was detected between Sept. 29, 2016, and Dec. 29, 2016, at locations accounting for 30 percent of its mostly franchised locations in the Americas. IHG properties include Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, InterContinental, Kimpton Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites. While the impact of the breach on financial institutions is yet unknown, the figures reported by IHG would make this breach one of the largest hotel company data breaches in recent years. While IHG hotels nationwide were affected, the breach primarily affected Holiday Inns and Holiday Inns Express in rural and suburban areas of the South and the Midwest. Cybersecurity analyst and reporter Brian Krebs, who first broke news about the breach in December, notes that more IHG hotels may be implicated. “[N]ot all property owners have been anxious to take the company up on [IHG’s offer of outside assistance],” he wrote. “As a consequence, there may be more breached hotel locations yet to be added to the state lookup tool.” MORE INFORMATION ON WAYS TO PROTECT YOURSELF We remind you it is always advisable to be vigilant for incidents of fraud or identity theft by reviewing your account statements and free credit reports for any unauthorized activity. You may obtain a copy of your credit report, free of charge, once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies. To order your annual free credit report, please visit http://www.annualcreditreport.com or call toll-free at 1-877-322-8228. |
|||
| NATIONWIDE CREDIT REPORTING COMPANIES
|
Experian
Phone: 888-397-3742
P.O. Box 9554
Allen, Texas 75013
| If you believe you are the victim of identity theft or have reason to believe your personal information has been misused, you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission and/or the Attorney General’s office in your state. You can obtain information from these sources about steps an individual can take to avoid identity theft as well as information about fraud alerts and security freezes. You should also contact your local law enforcement authorities and file a police report. Obtain a copy of the police report in case you are asked to provide copies to creditors to correct your records. Contact information for the Federal Trade Commission is as follows:
Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Response Center 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20580 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338)
|
