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DP37 Biggest Data Breaches - 4 - Marriott Hotels
The fourth largest data breach isn’t from a bank or a social networking site but rather a chain of hotels. A cyberattack against the Marriott hotel chain managed to swipe details of roughly 500 million guests.
The hack was suspected to be from Chinese hackers working for the Ministry of State Security, the country’s Communist-controlled civilian spy agency. This discovery came at a time where the Trump administration was taking steps to change policies that would impact China’s trade, cyber, and economic policies.
This attack seemed to stem from feelings about the discussion that President Trump and President Xi Jinping had in Buenos Aires around that time. But I don’t believe that’s the case. Especially since the hack was discovered in September 2018 and was revealed late November, weeks before the discussion with both presidents.
But setting aside the politics of this data breach, what’s important here is the damage. While you’d think data on a hotel database is limited it’s really not. Again many companies have gotten greedy about information and now store all kinds of information on their systems.
In the case of Marriott hotel they store credit card numbers as most would which is fair. But when would a hotel need someone’s home address? Or in Marriott’s case passport information?
On a security stand point, asking for an email address makes some sense. A company can send you promotional material, deals, or offers. But when does a hotel need to know where you live or if you flown to get here? You’re already paying for the hotel - their main purpose of business - what more could they need?
I think that I’ve made my point quite clear that not all companies need to know everything about you. And while it’s almost instinct for us to give that information away freely, we need to be more conscious about the impact. After all, an email is a valuable tool for a hacker and is a gateway to all kinds of things. And if your password is easy to crack, they can take over your entire life online. So let’s all be conscious of what sort of information we give to others. Most times it’s entirely unnecessary to give.
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By dpappThe fourth largest data breach isn’t from a bank or a social networking site but rather a chain of hotels. A cyberattack against the Marriott hotel chain managed to swipe details of roughly 500 million guests.
The hack was suspected to be from Chinese hackers working for the Ministry of State Security, the country’s Communist-controlled civilian spy agency. This discovery came at a time where the Trump administration was taking steps to change policies that would impact China’s trade, cyber, and economic policies.
This attack seemed to stem from feelings about the discussion that President Trump and President Xi Jinping had in Buenos Aires around that time. But I don’t believe that’s the case. Especially since the hack was discovered in September 2018 and was revealed late November, weeks before the discussion with both presidents.
But setting aside the politics of this data breach, what’s important here is the damage. While you’d think data on a hotel database is limited it’s really not. Again many companies have gotten greedy about information and now store all kinds of information on their systems.
In the case of Marriott hotel they store credit card numbers as most would which is fair. But when would a hotel need someone’s home address? Or in Marriott’s case passport information?
On a security stand point, asking for an email address makes some sense. A company can send you promotional material, deals, or offers. But when does a hotel need to know where you live or if you flown to get here? You’re already paying for the hotel - their main purpose of business - what more could they need?
I think that I’ve made my point quite clear that not all companies need to know everything about you. And while it’s almost instinct for us to give that information away freely, we need to be more conscious about the impact. After all, an email is a valuable tool for a hacker and is a gateway to all kinds of things. And if your password is easy to crack, they can take over your entire life online. So let’s all be conscious of what sort of information we give to others. Most times it’s entirely unnecessary to give.