NEW YORK — (CNN) Hackers snuck a computer virus into Trump hotels across the United States and Canada, potentially stealing customer credit card data for an entire year.
The Trump Hotel Collection recently acknowledged the computer infection on its website.
Apparently, hackers managed to hide inside the company’s computers for a long time. The hotel chain warned that anyone who visited a Trump hotel between May 19, 2014 and June 2, 2015 “may have been affected.”
The list of hotels includes two locations in New York and one in each of the following cities: Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Toronto and Miami.
According to Trump hotels, hackers placed special software on the Trump hotel chain’s payment systems. That malware touched sensitive payment information, like credit card numbers, expiration dates and security codes on the back of cards.
It seems that, as customers or hotel employees typed in payment information, the malicious software quietly grabbed it in the background. But the company isn’t quite sure if the hackers managed to pull out that data from the computer system.
“An independent forensic investigation has not conclusively determined that any particular customer’s payment card information was taken,” the company stated.
The hotel chain is offering one year of free identity fraud protection to affected customers. And credit cards always have fraud protection. So, at most, this hack will be an inconvenience to any victims.
Trump hotels are only the latest addition to an increasingly long list of hacked companies. In the last two years, hackers managed to steal payment data from Albertson’s, CVS Photo, Home Depot, Michaels, Neiman Marcus, P.F. Chang’s, Staples, SuperValu and Target.
“Data networks are continuously under attack,” said Kevin Watson, CEO of data security company Netsurion. “In the case of Trump Hotels, the bigger the name on the door, the bigger the target.”
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