Hacker attack
Data from millions of Motel One guests apparently ended up on the Internet
A hotel belonging to the Motel One chain in Parkstadt Schwabing in Munich
© aal.photo / Imago Images
The Motel One hotel chain has become the target of a hacker attack. According to a report, a huge amount of customer data was published online.
According to a media report, the Motel One hotel chain has become the target of a hacker attack. The names and travel dates of millions of customers are said to have ended up on the Internet, reports the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ). According to the report, the data set, which is almost six terabytes in size, contains almost complete lists of overnight stays from the past few years since 2016. Private billing addresses, customers’ dates of birth, internal business figures and some of employees’ cell phone numbers can also be found online.
The hotel group based in Munich confirmed on September 30th on the online network X, formerly Twitter, that it was aiming for one to have been a hacker attack. According to the SZ’s research, the hacker group ALPHV claimed responsibility for the attack, which was supposedly intended to extort money. When asked by the newspaper, Motel One said that the incident was being investigated by IT security experts. A criminal complaint was also filed.
Motel One apparently stored data for a very long time
According to the SZ report, the overnight stay data came from so-called emergency lists that the chain’s hotels create daily. When asked why this information was apparently stored for years, Motel One did not provide an answer to SZ’s request.
The chain’s founder and co-owner, Dieter Müller, whose data was also published in the leak, called on politicians to significantly upgrade cyber defenses in view of the massive data leak.
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