Trump Hotels Investigate Possible Payments Data Breach

As Donald Trump trudges along on the journey to win out the republican candidate nomination for the 2016 presidential election, his hotel chain faces a series of challenges of its own.

The Trump hotels chain confirmed late last week that payment card information from some of its hotels may have been hacked. The breach is thought to have involved unauthorized software that was used to access to credit card information from the hotels’ own payment systems. That breach is believed to have happened between May 2014 and June 2015, and could impact people who used credit or debit cards at seven of the chain’s hotels.

Those include: Trump SoHo New York; Trump National Doral in Miami; Trump International New York; Trump International Chicago; Trump International Waikiki in Honolulu; Trump International Hotel & Tower Las Vegas; and Trump International Toronto.

The company is currently investigating the incident and has said it is offering a year of identity protection for those who may have been impacted by the breach during the dates mentioned.

“Although an independent forensic investigation has not conclusively determined that any particular customer’s payment card information was taken from the properties’ payment card system or misused, we are providing this notice out of an abundance of caution,” a statement from Trump reads.

Late last month it was announced that Hilton Hotels properties were also likely hacked as part of another payments breach.

The report indicates that banks have traced credit card fraud to attacks linked to hotel point-of-sale terminals in gift shops and restaurants. Hilton confirmed to Krebs that it is investigating the banks’ claims. This story dates back to August when reports initially surfaced about a breach at a brick-and-mortar location. This alert indicated that some Visa cards may have been compromised.

While Hilton’s name was not included in that initial report, it now appears that POS terminals at Hilton properties were likely compromised, which included Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Hampton Inn and Suites and Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts.

The hack at Trump Hotels follows a year of other major hotel breaches, including a breach early in the year at White Lodging Services, which operates 174 hotel properties. That particular breach involve malware that was found on POS systems in restaurants and lounges at nine Marriott-branded hotels and one Sheraton-branded hotel. The company hired a security firm to investigate after a credit union notified it on Jan. 27, 2015, of suspicious activity on payment cards used at the hotels.

To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.