Trump’s Hotel Collection investigates potential credit card breach
Thu 2 Jul 2015
Donald Trump’s luxury hotel business is carrying out a ‘thorough investigation’ into claims that its IT systems had been affected in a security breach which stole customers’ credit and debit card details.
Security reporter Brain Krebs pointed out that U.S. banks had highlighted a trend of fraudulent purchases from accounts owned by customers who had stayed at one of the Trump Hotel Collection locations.
Krebs suggested that the attack could have been ongoing since February.
“Like virtually every other company these days, we have been alerted to potential suspicious credit card activity and are in the midst of a thorough investigation to determine whether it involves any of our properties […] We are committed to safeguarding all guests’ personal information and will continue to do so vigilantly,” assured Eric Trump, executive vice president at the Trump Organisation.
In a previous blog dated 1st July, Krebs published data from anonymous sources at several major U.S. banking groups who had identified a pattern of fraud – with the Trump Hotel Collection being the common factor.
The security expert wrote that at least five of Trump’s hotel properties had been affected including Chicago, Las Vegas, Honolulu, Miami, New York and Los Angeles.
Ken Westin, security analyst at Tripwire, argued that the attack had been “sophisticated and orchestrated.”
“When a larger group of organisations appears to be involved, it usually indicates that the breach took advantage of shared network resources or applications […] Many organisations share back-end systems and payment gateways to reduce cost […] and the data on these shared systems are very high value target for attackers,” Westin added.
If the attack is confirmed, Trump Organization will join other global leisure and hospitality giants targeted recently by cybercriminals, such as Hard Rock International and Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group which were both alleged victims of credit card security breaches.
