Marriott discloses data breach possibly affecting over 5 million customers

Marriott International was the target of another hack, but this wasn’t as massive as the previous one.

The hotel chain said Tuesday it recently discovered that someone using the log-in information of two employees accessed an “unexpected amount of guest information” totaling more than 5 million guests. Marriott believes the incident happened between mid-January and February of this year.

The data accessed this time is less alarming than the November 2018 incident, where passport numbers and credit card information were revealed. Roughly 400 million guests had their personal information exposed by that hack. Most of the cost of that incident was paid by insurance.

In this instance, hackers were able to access the birth dates, names, mailing addresses and loyalty information about guests, such as which airline programs they belonged to and their point balances. No passwords or credit card information appear to have been lost.

Marriott is alerting those affected by the latest hack and has started a website and call center. It also said that it “does not currently believe that its total costs related to this incident will be significant.”

Still, it’s another issue for the company to deal with amid the coronavirus pandemic that has erased demand for travel and forced it to furlough thousands of employees and temporarily close hotels.

The chain manages nearly 2,000 properties and 560,000 rooms across the world. Combined with its franchisees, Marriott has 7,300 properties globally. Its 30 brands include W Hotels, Courtyard, and the Sheraton.

Marriott’s shares are down 7% in Wednesday trading, mirroring a broader trend of stock markets declining.