MAR stock was falling hard on Thursday on news of a major Marriott data breach.
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According to Marriott (NASDAQ:MAR), the data breach was discovered by it on Nov. 19. The company took action at this time to determine just how bad the data breach was. It learned that hackers have had access to its systems since 2014.
The bad news for MAR stock is that this means about 500 million customers have had their data stolen by hackers. The company notes that for 173 million of these customers, the stolen information only includes a combination of name, mailing address, email address and maybe some extra details.
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The news is worse for the other 327 million customers in the Marriott data breach. The list of stolen information here can include “name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest (“SPG”) account information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date, and communication preferences.”
It doesn’t just stop there though. Marriott also points out that some of the 327 million customers also had much more private information stolen. This includes payment card numbers and payment card expiration dates. MAR notes that these numbers are encrypted, but says the hackers may have obtained the tools from its website to decrypt the information.
Marriott says that it is working with authorities to get to the bottom of the data breach. It is also offering WebWatcher to affected guests for one year at no cost to them. This is a service that monitors for stolen information online.
MAR stock was down 5% as of Friday morning.
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As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
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