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On March 31, 2020, Marriott International announced a data breach affecting up to 5 million of its customers.
Between mid-January and February of 2020, an unauthorized individual used the log-in information of two employees to access private customer data.
Breached data reportedly include:
This breach comes almost a year and a half after the 2018 incident in which cybercriminals accessed the private information of up to 500 million customers of the Starwood brand, a Marriott subsidiary.
Breached data reportedly include:
- Names
- Dates of birth
- Mailing addresses
- Email addresses
- Phone numbers
- Loyalty account numbers and point balances
- Additional personal details (e.g., company, gender)
- Partnership and affiliations including linked airline loyalty programs and numbers
This breach comes almost a year and a half after the 2018 incident in which cybercriminals accessed the private information of up to 500 million customers of the Starwood brand, a Marriott subsidiary.
Hotels operated and franchised under Marriott’s brands use an application to help provide services to guests at hotels.
At the end of February 2020, we identified that an unexpected amount of guest information may have been accessed using the login credentials of two employees at a franchise property.
We believe this activity started in mid-January 2020. Upon discovery, we confirmed that the login credentials were disabled, immediately began an investigation, implemented heightened monitoring, and arranged resources to inform and assist guests.
Although our investigation is ongoing, we currently have no reason to believe that the information involved included Marriott Bonvoy account passwords or PINs, payment card information, passport information, national IDs, or driver’s license numbers.
At this point, we believe that the following information may have been involved, although not all of this information was present for every guest involved:
- Contact Details (e.g., name, mailing address, email address, and phone number)
- Loyalty Account Information (e.g., account number and points balance, but not passwords)
- Additional Personal Details (e.g., company, gender, and birthday day and month)
- Partnerships and Affiliations (e.g., linked airline loyalty programs and numbers)
- Preferences (e.g., stay/room preferences and language preference)
What Should You Do?
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Dedicated Call Center Resources
We have established dedicated call center resources for guests to obtain more information, which can be reached by calling the following numbers:
| Location | Number |
| United States/Canada | +1-800-598-9655 |
| Australia | 1800280257 |
| France | 0805540130 |
| Germany | 08006644414 |
| United Kingdom | 08003457018 |
| Rest of the World (toll may apply) | +1-402-952-5356 |
The call center resources will be staffed during ordinary business hours in the United States, 8:00am-8:00pm EDT Monday through Friday. Language support will be provided in English and French, and additional translation services will be available upon request.
Additional Guest Support
We have taken the following additional steps to help our guests:
- Where available, Marriott is offering you the option to enroll in a personal information monitoring service, free of charge for 1 year, as described below.
- If you are a Marriott Bonvoy member and we have determined that your information was involved:
- We have disabled your existing Marriott Bonvoy password, so when you log in to your Marriott Bonvoy account at Marriott.com, you will be prompted to change your password.
- You will also be prompted to enable multi-factor authentication to further protect access to your account.
- We have notified relevant authorities and are supporting their investigations.
Free IdentityWorks Enrollment
Where available, Marriott is offering guests involved the option to enroll in a personal information monitoring service, IdentityWorks, free of charge for 1 year. This service will be provided by Experian, a global data and information services provider. This is an optional service that allows you to identify information that you would like to have the service monitor; how much information to include in the monitoring is completely up to you. Any information that you provide to Experian will only be used by Experian for the sole purpose of the monitoring service.
Due to regulatory and other reasons, IdentityWorks or similar products are not available in all countries/regions. IdentityWorks is currently available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Language support for online enrollment is available in English, French, French Canadian, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
To use IdentityWorks to start monitoring your personal information please follow the steps below:
- Ensure that you enroll by June 30, 2020 (your code will not work after this date.)
- Visit the Experian IdentityWorks website to enroll:
- US Residents: https://www.experianidworks.com/identity
- Non-US Residents: http://www.globalidworks.com/identity1
- Provide your activation code:
- US Residents: To be provided in the email notice or self-service portal communication
- Non-US Residents: To be provided in the email notice or self-service portal communication
A credit card is not required for enrollment in Experian IdentityWorks.
Frequently Asked Questions
These Frequently Asked Questions May Be Supplemented From Time to Time
What Happened?
Hotels operated and franchised under Marriott’s brands use an application to help provide services to guests at hotels. At the end of February 2020, we identified that an unexpected amount of guest information may have been accessed using the login credentials of two employees at a franchise property. We believe this activity started in mid-January 2020. Upon discovery, we confirmed that the login credentials were disabled, immediately began an investigation, implemented heightened monitoring, and arranged resources to inform and assist guests.
What information was accessed?
Although our investigation is ongoing, we currently have no reason to believe that the information involved included Marriott Bonvoy account passwords or PINs, payment card information, passport information, national IDs, or driver’s license numbers.
At this point, we believe that the following information may have been involved, although not all of this information was present for every guest involved:
- Contact details (e.g., name, mailing address, email address, and phone number)
- Loyalty Account Information (e.g., account number and points balance, but not passwords)
- Additional Personal Details (e.g., company, gender, and birthday day and month)
- Partnerships and Affiliations (e.g., linked airline loyalty programs and numbers)
- Preferences (e.g., stay/room preferences and language preference)
If you are uncertain whether your information was involved in the incident, we have set up a self-service online portal for guests to be able to determine whether their information was involved and, if so, what categories of information were involved. This portal can be accessed here.
What steps did you take in response?
Upon discovery, we confirmed that the login credentials were disabled, immediately began an investigation, implemented heightened monitoring, and arranged resources to inform and assist guests. Internal and external security teams have been working hard to investigate the incident, implement additional security measures, and address what was found.
In addition, if you are a Marriott Bonvoy member and we have determined that your information was involved:
- We have disabled your existing Bonvoy password, so when you log in to your Marriott Bonvoy account at Marriott.com, you will be prompted to change your password.
- You will also be prompted to enable multi-factor authentication to further protect access to your account.
Was my information involved in the incident?
On March 31, 2020, Marriott sent emails to guests involved. We have also set up a self-service online portal for guests to be able to determine whether their information was involved in the incident and, if so, what categories of information were involved. This portal can be accessed here.
Was my Marriott Bonvoy password or PIN involved?
No. We currently have no reason to believe that the information involved included Marriott Bonvoy account passwords or PINs. Nonetheless, we encourage you to take steps to protect yourself and your account and have described those steps below under the heading “What other steps can I take?”
Were payment cards involved?
No. We currently have no reason to believe that the information involved included any payment card information.
Were driver’s license or national identification numbers involved?
No. We currently have no reason to believe that the information involved included any driver’s license or national identification numbers.
Were passports involved?
No. We currently have no reason to believe that the information involved any passport information.
How many guests were involved in this incident?
Although Marriott’s investigation is ongoing, the company currently believes that information may have been involved for up to approximately 5.2 million guests.
What is Marriott doing for guests involved?
We are providing guests involved with information about steps they can take, including enrolling in the IdentityWorks online information monitoring service.
Marriott is also working hard to ensure that our guests have answers to questions with a dedicated website and call center resources.
How will I know that the email notification I receive is from Marriott?
We want you to be confident that the email notification you receive is from Marriott. The email was sent from marriott@email-marriott.com because this is the standard email account used to communicate with our guests.
We also want you to be aware that when other companies have provided notifications like this, ill-intentioned people used the opportunity to try to trick individuals into providing information about themselves through the use of links to fake websites (phishing) or by impersonating someone they trust (social engineering). Please note that the email you may receive from us will not contain any attachments or request any information from you.
What is IdentityWorks and how do I enroll?
IdentityWorks is a personal information monitoring service that Marriott will offer, free of charge for 1 year. This service is provided by Experian, a global data and information services provider. This is an optional service that allows guests involved to identify information that you would like to have the service monitor; how much information to include in the monitoring is completely up to you. Any information that you provide to Experian will only be used by Experian for the sole purpose of the monitoring service.
Due to regulatory and other reasons, IdentityWorks or similar products are not available in all countries/regions. IdentityWorks is currently available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Language support for online enrollment is available in English, French, French Canadian, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
To use IdentityWorks to start monitoring your personal information please follow the steps below:
- Ensure that you enroll by June 30, 2020 (your code will not work after this date.)
- Visit the Experian IdentityWorks website to enroll:
- US Residents: https://www.experianidworks.com/identity
- Non-US Residents: http://www.globalidworks.com/identity1
- Provide your activation code:
- US Residents: To be provided in the email notice or self-service portal communication
- Non-US Residents: To be provided in the email notice or self-service portal communication
A credit card is not required for enrollment in Experian IdentityWorks.
What other steps can I take?
To guard against the information involved being used for phishing or social engineering attempts or attempts to access and use the points in your Marriott Bonvoy account, you can take a number of precautionary steps, in addition to enrolling in IdentityWorks:
- If you have a Marriott Bonvoy account but have not activated your online access to it and set up a password, you should do so now.
- Use good password management practices, including not using easily guessed passwords and not using the same password across multiple accounts.
- Monitor your Marriott Bonvoy account for any activity that you did not initiate and notify us of any suspicious activity.
- If we have determined that your information was involved in the incident, you will be prompted to reset your password and enable multi-factor authentication to further protect access to your account.
- You should not provide any information—especially payment card information, other financial account information, online account information, or passwords—to anyone who calls or otherwise contacts you purporting to be from Marriott or a Marriott brand hotel. Marriott will never call or email you to ask you to provide this information by phone or email.
- You should be vigilant against possible “phishing” emails that appear to be (but are not) sent from Marriott email addresses.
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