Choice Hotels: 700,000 Guest Records Exposed

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/choice-hotels-700000-guest-records-exposed-a-12913

By Jeremy Kirk
Bank Info Security
August 14, 2019

Choice Hotels says about 700,000 guest records were exposed after one of its
vendors copied data from its systems. Fraudsters discovered the unsecured
database and tried to hold the hotel chain to ransom, which it ignored.

Choice Hotels is one of the largest lodging franchisers, with 7,000 locations in
40 countries, including brands such as EconoLodge, Comfort Inn and Quality Inn.
Security researcher Bob Diachenko discovered the leak, according to the
U.K.-based website Comparitech.

The hotel company tells ISMG the ransom attempt was "not successful."

The data was copied by the vendor, which was not identified, to its systems
"without authorization," it says. Ironically, Choice Hotels says the data "was
being hosted on their server to test a security offering." None of Choice
Hotels' servers were impacted.

[...]



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