Hacker Invades Best Western to Steal Data

According to the UK newspaper The Sunday Herald's investigation, an unknown Indian hacker infiltrated the corporate databases of Best Western Hotel and accessed its content that included names, contact addresses, payment card numbers as well as other information of customers who boarded lodging with the worldwide assembly of hotels since 2007.

It appears that the hacker inserted a Trojan program into the PCs of one of the hotels and accessed the username and password of a person with a lot of security for entering the corporate servers. However, the incident came to light when the company's database was put online for sale.

A Spokesman from the group said that Best Western immediately acted by disabling the log-in account that was compromised. The company is currently working with its credit card alliances to make sure that all procedural standards are met and also ensuring that its guests' interests are protected, as reported by vnunet on August 25, 2008.

The spokesman further said that the company is still investigating the main motive behind the hack, including the intermediate Website that had allegedly helped in the illegal tapping of information.

Also, an Eastern European hacking gang apparently provided the details on the method for reaching the databases. Meanwhile, the security loophole exploited by the hacker was now closed; however, the losses to the hotel's customers could potentially be enormous.

Jacques Erasmus, a Security Expert and a Former Hacker, who presently works at Prevx, an online security company, said that the hackers had made a massive theft at the company. Although there are a lot of hacked corporate databases posted on the Internet for sale, the massive amount and type of information stolen from the Best Western, made the raid particularly rare, as reported by digitalJournal on August 25, 2008.

Meanwhile, the Best Western group of hotels are currently getting in touch with the affected customers and providing them the necessary assistance. Additionally, it is coordinating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and worldwide authorities for further investigation.

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» SPAMfighter News - 9/2/2008