Hackers stole thousands of Wyndham customer's credit card numbers.
Have you stayed at a Wyndham hotel lately? If so, have you checked your credit card or debit card statement?
The Wyndham hotel chain was warned people of an incident where hackers broke into a computer at a Wyndham Hotels and Resorts stealing thousands of customers credit card numbers and information.
Reportedly the theft or break-in took place at a location belonging to a Wyndham franchisee which has a computer that links them to other company systems. Wyndham said in a statement disclosing the breach, "That intrusion enabled a hacker to use the company server to search for customer information located at other franchised and managed property sites."
It has been estimated that 41 Wyndham hotels and resorts were affected by the infiltration before being discovered by Wyndham's security team back in September. The stolen data was known to be uploaded to a website during July 2008 and August 2008. Authorities are not sure as to the exact number of customers effected but it is speculated that around 21,000 customers in Florida may have had their credit card numbers stolen. The information included in the breach included credit card numbers, corresponding names, expatriation dates and also data from the card's magnetic strip.
With all of this information in the hands of the wrong people it can be said that the customers whose information was compromised face the potential of being targets for theft of money and even worst, identity theft.
Additional details were just posted last week about this incident. Beforehand the customers effected by this breach were made aware in December 2008. The U.S. Secret Service, who investigates financial crimes, only notified the credit card companies after an 8-week investigation which some believe is a massive gap in the time that customers could have been directly affected by this breach.
What can be done when situations like this arise?
Simply monitoring your assets including keeping a close eye on the activity on your banking and credit card accounts. This is one free method that you can utilize that may help you to notify the authorities in a prompt manor so you are not held liable for fraudulent charges. Credit monitoring is also a viable option but may be at a cost to you.
Have you stayed at a Wyndham Hotel or Resort in the past few months? Do you fear your credit or debit card information getting stolen from the many places that you swipe your card?