Hilton Hotels warns that it was targeted by malware, in attempt to steal payment card data

Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
@
@[email protected]
@gcluley

Hilton Hotel
This evening Hilton Worldwide issued a statement confirming rumours that have swirled around for the last couple of months, that its payment systems were targeted by payment card-stealing malware.

Hilton has not disclosed whether payment card data was taken, but warned that the malware had the potential to steal a variety of information including cardholder names, payment card numbers, security codes and expiry dates. However, addresses and PINs were apparently not at risk.

Right now Hilton doesn’t appear to be sharing any information about how many or which hotel locations may have been affected by the breach, or whether the attack was limited (as was the case in other attacks on hotel chains) to point of sales devices in restaurants and retail outlets, rather than necessarily at the check-in desk.

In a press release, Hilton is telling customers to review their payment card statements – particularly if they used their cards at a Hilton Worldwide hotel between November 8 – December 5 2014 or April 21 – July 27 2015.

Sign up to our free newsletter.
Security news, advice, and tips.

Of course, if you spot any irregularities you should contact your bank or card provider as soon as possible.

The confirmation of the attack against Hilton Hotels comes shortly after Starwood warned that a number of its hotels, including Sheraton, W, and Westin properties, had also been hit by malware designed to snaffle payment card details from point-of-sales systems.

Hilton is not alone in being targeted by online criminals. A growing list of hotels and resorts t have recently found their systems compromised by malware – other victims have included Hard Rock’s Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, the Las Vegas Sands casino, Trump Hotels, Mandarin Oriental and FireKeepers Casino and Hotel.

Update: The above article has been updated to reflect that Hilton’s statement did not confirm that any payment card details have been stolen.


Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "Smashing Security" podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

3 comments on “Hilton Hotels warns that it was targeted by malware, in attempt to steal payment card data”

  1. Charlie Vereker

    I think you mean November 8 – December 5 2014, not 2015. Notifying customers that their credit card details will be stolen if they stay there in the NEXT two weeks would be on a different level of badness!

    1. Thanks Charlie!

      Now fixed. Fingers crossed that Hilton Customers *don't* have their card details nabbed again in the next few weeks. :)

  2. Steve Lyons

    How come they were storing the security codes? I thought they were not supposed to do that!

What do you think? Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.