InterContinental Hotels Hacked?

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), parent company to more than 5,000 global hotel locations including Holiday Inn, is investigating a possible data security breach in some U.S. chains.

Last week, sources familiar with fraud prevention at different financial institutions told Krebs on Security that a pattern of fraud was recognized on payment cards which could point to a breach across some IHG properties.

It’s believed that if a breach did take place, it mainly impacted Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express locations.

A spokesperson for IHG provided the following statement on the matter:

“IHG takes the protection of payment card data very seriously. We were made aware of a report of unauthorized charges occurring on some payment cards that were recently used at a small number of U.S.-based hotel locations. We immediately launched an investigation, which includes retaining a leading computer security firm to provide us with additional support. We continue to work with the payment card networks.”

“We are committed to swiftly resolving this matter. In the meantime, and in line with best practice, we recommend that individuals closely monitor their payment card account statements.  If there are unauthorized charges, individuals should immediately notify their bank. Payment card network rules generally state that cardholders are not responsible for such charges.”

Just months ago, 20 U.S. hotels operated by HEI Hotels & Resorts for Starwood, Marriott, Hyatt and InterContinental confirmed payment card data from tens of thousands of food, drink and other transactions was compromised due to a breach.

This breach followed the form of previous hospitality breaches seen of late, particularly the one of Hyatt Hotels and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.