A cyberattack on the reservation system of Starwood, a Marriott subsidiary, allowed unauthorized access to information about as many as 500 million guests since 2014. The New York Times first reported that investigators believe the attackers were likely to be the work of a Chinese state intelligence service. Marriott acquired Starwood in 2016 and kept the reservation databases separate from its own until recently. The reservation system of Marriott hotels themselves was not affected by the breach. Marriott was able to decrypt the information and understand the extent of the breach only in November, it said.

Source: Washington Post December 12, 2018 02:54 UTC