Hackers Steal Data On 8 Million Best Western Customers?

Category: Internet
Posted: August 25, 2008 01:50PM
Author: jammin

According to a report by the Sunday Herald, hackers recently made of with the personal details of over 8 million customers of Best Western, the hotel chain. Data apparently included names and adresses, credit card details, telephone numbers and place of employment and were garnered from reservation details from over 1300 of the company's continental European hotel locations since 2007. The breach occured when a hacker gained login details to the reservation system after installing a trojan on one of the company's computers. These details were then sold off, leaving the buyers able to download the system’s 2007 - 2008 records. Best Western has since closed the breach and is continuing to investigate the issue, though it is estimated that the data stolen could be worth in excess of £2.8 billion (over $5 billion).

edit - It seems that Best Western are calling the reporting of the Sunday Herald "grossly unsubstantiated" and are claiming that only 13 customer records were actually exposed.