It’s time for travel, but cyber criminals are being successful by merely staying home. An increasingly popular strategy is for them to gain remote access to point-of-sale (POS) machines and install malware that captures the payment card information of each swiped card. The latest
company in the hospitality business to perhaps suffer this is the boutique chain, Kimpton Hotels.
The chain announced that after receiving information of unauthorized charges on cards used at the Kimpton properties, it has launched an investigation of a potential breach. Anyone having used a payment card at a Kimpton property or at any of the restaurant or retail services within them, should be sure to check payment card charges for potential fraud. If anything looks suspicious, report it to the card issuer immediately. The sooner it is reported, the faster it can get resolved and the less cost to all involved parties.
In addition, if given the chance to choose between using the card as debit or credit, choose credit. Although it can still allow the information to be copied and used to make purchases, it will not provide thieves with enough information (i.e. the PIN) to use it at an ATM and empty the associated bank account of cash.
Kimpton is the latest in a list of companies in the hospitality industry to acknowledge card breaches, or a potential one in this case, within the past year. Others include Trump Hotels, Hilton, Mandarin Oriental, Starwood and Hyatt. For most of those, it was determined that malware was remotely planted on the POS devices within the hotels. The cause of the potential Kimpton breach is yet to be determined.
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