[ISN] Westin Bonaventure Los Angeles latest victim of hotel hackers

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/hotelcheckin/post/2010/03/hackers-breach-westin-bonaventure-los-angeles-networks-cybercriminal/1

By Barbara De Lollis
USA TODAY
Hotel Check-In
March 07, 2010

You may have to monitor your credit card statements - and even place a 
fraud alert on your card - if you ate or parked your car at the Westin 
Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in Los Angeles between April 2009 and 
December 2009.

Why? The Westin Bonaventure became the latest example of a hotel whose 
computer systems are believed to have been breached by unidentified 
cybercriminals.

Hackers are believed to have breached the computer systems for the 
Westin's four restaurants and valet parking operation during the 8-month 
period, hotel officials disclosed Friday in a press release. 
Cybercriminals may have obtained customer names, their credit and 
debit-card numbers and expiration dates. Hotel guests' credit card 
information is apparently safe, however, because hackers didn't get into 
that computer system, the release says.

The incident is the latest example of a worldwide hotel hacking trend 
that started roughly 18 months ago, online security expert Nicholas 
Percoco of Trustwave told Hotel Check-In recently. Last year for the 
first time ever, hotels accounted for the largest percentage of online 
breach investigations, Trustwave figures show. Hackers find hotels easy 
because they generally don't do an adequate job of protecting their 
systems from hackers, and they're not as likely to be vigilant. The 
average hotel breach is detected after after five months, Percoco told 
Hotel Check-In.

Hotel Check-In ran its last hotel hacking post last week - on the day 
after Wyndham disclosed its third breach in 12 months. The post 
immediately soared to Hotel Check-In's most-read post so far - by far - 
for March. I interpret that as a sign of just how worried consumers are 
growing about the hacking trend. (Hotels: Are you listening?)

[...]



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