Card breach at Hilton Hotels chain should be treated as a wake-up call to the industry
Hilton Hotels have admitted that they are investigating claims hackers have compromised their point of sale systems at their flagship Hilton locations, as well as Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Hampton Inn and Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts.
A number of financial institutions were warned of a breach in August by Visa, which was known to have happened between the 21st April and 27th July, however sources at five separate banks have now determined that the common point-of-sale used on all breached cards were at various restaurants, coffee bars and gift shops within Hilton properties.
The hotel industry was criticised back in March when security firm Cylance discovered that vulnerabilities within Wi-Fi routers used at hundreds of hotels around the world allowed hackers to distribute malware to guests and access the hotel’s reservation systems.
The chain admitted that “unfortunately the possibility of fraudulent credit card activity is all too common for every company in today’s marketplace”.
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