Marriott data breach is enormous

Topic

New Reply

Catalin Cimpanu, now on ZDNet, has the news that Hours after announcing a data breach on Friday, two Oregon men sued international hotel chain Marriot
[See the full post at: Marriott data breach is enormous]

4 users thanked author for this post.

cesmart4125, geekdom, SueW, GreatAndPowerfulTech

Reply | Quote

Replies

I like these comments that Krebs made in the 2nd link:

Likewise for individuals, it pays to accept two unfortunate and harsh realities:

Reality #1: Bad guys already have access to personal data points that you may believe should be secret but which nevertheless aren’t, including your credit card information, Social Security number, mother’s maiden name, date of birth, address, previous addresses, phone number, and yes — even your credit file.

Reality #2: Any data point you share with a company will in all likelihood eventually be hacked, lost, leaked, stolen or sold — usually through no fault of your own. And if you’re an American, it means (at least for the time being) your recourse to do anything about that when it does happen is limited or nil.

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

2 users thanked author for this post.

cesmart4125, AlexEiffel

Reply | Quote

According to this list in Cimpanu’s blog, pretty much everyone that has stayed in any of the hotels listed here at any time in the last five years has had some personal information stolen:

“Guests who stayed at Marriott’s Starwood-branded hotels in the past four years were affected. Starwood brands include W Hotels, St. Regis, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Element Hotels, Aloft Hotels, The Luxury Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts, Four Points by Sheraton and Design Hotels.”

There has been a lot of this going on affecting companies that keep large data bases with their customers’ information. And then there is “the Cloud”.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

1 user thanked author for this post.

cesmart4125

Reply | Quote

Privacy is a thing of the past these days. You think you’re protecting your privacy or are private but once you’re online or deal with a corporation, it’s long gone and most likely sold to the highest bidder to cater to your ‘personalized ads’. This is why these types of companies make millions and billions.

1 user thanked author for this post.

cesmart4125

Reply | Quote

Rawr wrote: ” Privacy is a thing of the past these days. ”

That might be true to some extent, although not inevitably so in things that really matter to those who are very careful and jealous about their privacy (see jescott418’s entry below). Legitimate corporations might ask and keep, but would not sell, your credit card or bank account numbers. Criminals, on the other hand, may steal those numbers from those businesses and then sell, or even use them. A corporation that is led by people capable of committing such crimes might exist and might sell your information, if those at the top decided to do so. But it could be jail time and big fines for those bosses if that is ever found. So I doubt they would get into something as risky, and crude, as selling their customers’ numbers.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

Reply | Quote

I’ve made a few changes with doing business online. One is I do not store credit cards with any online merchant. Yes, it takes a bit more time to enter in all that stuff but I simply do not trust any companies online security no matter what PR they put out to convince me otherwise. Second I don’t create user accounts for sites I rarely use for purchases. I sign in as a guest account where I hope the company stores very little about me. The GDPR is a interesting step in privacy, but how much teeth it has in penalties and legal actions is yet to be discovered.

2 users thanked author for this post.

cesmart4125, OscarCP

Reply | Quote

Never use old school credit cards for online payments anymore, there are – especially in Europe – much better and secure alternatives. Have one card left in case of emergency, but it’ll probably also go the way of the dodo in the near future.

Reply | Quote

Quora, too, suffers from data breach; it’s epidemic. More information here:
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/04/673144745/100-million-quora-users-affected-by-malicious-data-breach

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

Reply | Quote