Marriott Hack Exposes up to 500 Million Customers

Marriott announced on Friday that its Starwood reservation system was hacked, leaving up to 500 million customers vulnerable to having their personal data stolen — including their passport and credit card information.

About 327 million guests had some combination of their “name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest (“SPG”) account information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure time, reservation date and communication preferences” taken, according to the international hotel group’s announcement. It’s unclear, according to Marriott, how many guests had their encrypted payment information hacked.

“We deeply regret this incident happened,” Arne Sorenson, Marriott’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We fell short of what our guests deserve and what we expect of ourselves. We are doing everything we can to support our guests, and using lessons learned to be better moving forward.”

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Marriott, which runs 6,700 hotels in 129 countries and territories, said it received an alert on Sept. 8 that hackers were attempting to access its security system. After an investigation, the company determined earlier this month its Starwood system had been breached — allowing hackers to access customer information as far back as 2014.

Marriott added it “recently discovered that an unauthorized party had copied and encrypted information, and took steps towards removing it.”

The hotel chain’s stock dropped more than 5 percent to $115.42 per share on Friday morning.

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This breach is far larger than the one that crippled Equifax last year, where more than 140 million customers had their information hacked, including their social security numbers. The hack cost the firm more than $400 million, Equifax announced earlier this year, following government investigation and civil lawsuits.

Hollywood's Biggest Brands Haunted by Hackers, From HBO to Disney (Photos)

Since the high-profile hack of Sony Pictures in 2014, cybersecurity has become one of Hollywood's top concerns as more studios and networks continue to become prime targets.
The biggest and most consequential hack to hit Hollywood was the Sony Pictures hack of 2014. Spurred by the studio's then-upcoming comedy "The Interview," about a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-Un, North Korean hackers were able to access employee information, emails, unreleased projects and other damaging information.
Sony
Netflix fell victim to a hack in 2017 when a group called "The Dark Overlord" stole episodes of "Orange Is the New Black" from a post-production house. When the streamer failed to meet ransom demands, the group released 10 episodes of the series weeks ahead of the scheduled premiere.
Netflix
After The Dark Overlord successfully released "Orange Is the New Black," the group took to Twitter promising to target other companies next. The group named ABC its next target in a vague tweet, but did not specify which show or shows it was threatening to release.
ABC
When The Dark Overlord took "Orange Is the New Black" from Larson Studios, it also reportedly made off with other unaired shows, including "NCIS: Los Angeles" and "Portlandia." ABC, NBC, FX, National Geographic, E!, Disney Channel and Lifetime were also contacted by the FBI, who was investigating the incident, to notify them that their work may have been compromised.
CBS
Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed in a company town hall meeting that the film studio had received a ransom demand from a hacker who claimed to have stolen one of their unreleased films. Reports said the pirated film was "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," though it was never released. Iger later said in an interview that he believed it to be a hoax.
Getty Images
UTA suffered a "malware incident" in April, in which hackers held the company's computer systems hostage, demanding payment in bitcoin. Meetings were canceled and pushed, with the talent agency effectively shut down as the company raced to respond. Outside investigators concluded that no sensitive information was compromised.
Getty Images
The Sundance Film Festival also suffered a cyberattack in 2017. The box office was forced to go offline for roughly 40 minutes as the festival responded to the situation, but no screenings were affected by the outage. "Our artist's voices will be heard and the show will go on," the festival said in a statement.
Getty Images
In the middle of the seventh season run of its biggest hit "Game of Thrones," HBO suffered a cyber breach in which hackers reportedly obtained a copy of the script for an upcoming episode. Unaired episodes of "Ballers" and "Room 104" were also stolen and released online.
HBO

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Since 2014’s massive Sony hack, Hollywood continues to be compromised

Since the high-profile hack of Sony Pictures in 2014, cybersecurity has become one of Hollywood's top concerns as more studios and networks continue to become prime targets.

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Hollywood's Biggest Brands Haunted by Hackers, From HBO to Disney (Photos)

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