FireKeepers Casino and Hotel located in Battle Creek, Michigan issued a notice on their website today confirming that an investigation has determined that credit and debit card transactions for food, beverage and retail purchases made between September 7, 2014 and April 25, 2105 may have been affected by unauthorized access to their computer system, as first reported here on May 8th.
Anyone who may have been affected by the breach, including present and former employees, is encouraged to visit the casino’s data and security page for a list of links to information and resources. The company is offering free enrollment, for one year beginning today, in credit monitoring and identity protection services – for those who may have been affected by the incident.
It would seem that no matter the financial firepower behind an organization nor their commitment to security can guarantee with 100% certainty that financial information is safe from hackers and hooligans.
In early May, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas reported they may have been breached. The government of Iran has been fingered in an attack on Las Vegas Sands‘ systems after owner Sheldon Adelson suggested the country be “nuked” as a preventative measure. The secretive corporation was able to keep the breach under wraps for a full 10 months. The NSA says they have been hacking North Korean hackers to trace their actions since 2010 – giving them reason to lay blame on Kim Jong Un’s spies for retaliating against Sony Pictures in what the regime called an “act of war” for releasing a movie that may have been in bad taste. An Atlantic City website was hacked and vandalized in April, and now even “The Donald” has some experience in the matter.
Trump Hotels credit card system breached, customer data may be at risk
On Thursday it was revealed that in addition to problems Donald Trump has been creating for himself after announcing a run for president, payment cards sharing a single common denominator have been compromised. What they all had in common was transactions at Trump Hotel Collection properties all across the U.S.
“Like virtually every other company these days, we have been alerted to potential suspicious credit card activity and are in the midst of a thorough investigation to determine whether it involves any of our properties,” said executive vice president of development and acquisitions at Trump Organization, Eric Trump. “We are committed to safeguarding all guests’ personal information and will continue to do so vigilantly.”
Other hotel chains have been targeted recently including the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group who confirmed in March that hotels in the U.S. and Europe had their credit card systems breached as far back as pre-Christmas 2014.
White Lodging released a follow up on April 8th this year covering Marriott, Courtyard, Renaissance, and Sheraton properties in the U.S. that read in part, “The unlawfully accessed data at risk is believed to be limited to names printed on customers’ credit or debit cards, credit or debit card numbers, the security code and card expiration dates of credit/debit cards used at the food and beverage outlets at the 10 hotels during the period July 3, 2014 through February 6, 2015.”
These are only a few of the known breaches that have occurred. Home Depot, Amazon, Target, the list is endless. The Pentagon reported getting 10 million attempts a day as far back as 2012.