Travelore Consumer Alert: Hyatt Hotels Warns Guests Of Payment Card Security Breach At 41 Properties

Hyatt Hotels Corp. said it had discovered unauthorized access to payment card information at certain Hyatt-managed locations worldwide between March 18, 2017, and July 2, 2017.

Hyatt said the incident affected payment card information, such as, cardholder name, card number, expiration date and internal verification code, from cards manually entered or swiped at the front desk of certain Hyatt-managed locations.

The owner of Andaz, Park Hyatt and Grand Hyatt chain of hotels said a total of 41 properties were affected in 11 countries, with China accounting for 18 properties, the most among impacted countries.

Seven Hyatt properties were affected at U.S. locations, including three in Hawaii, three in Puerto Rico and one in Guam.

The Chicago-based company said its cyber security team discovered signs of the unauthorized access in July and launched an internal investigation, completed on Thursday, that resolved the issue and took steps to prevent this from happening in the future.

This is not the first time Hyatt is facing data breach problem at its hotels.

In late 2015, Hyatt said its payment processing system was infected with credit-card-stealing malware, that had affected 250 hotels in about 50 countries.

Travelore Consumer Alert: Hyatt Hotel Visitors Hit By Payments System Hack

Image copyrightHyatt

Image captionHyatt hotels operate in 52 countries

Hotel group Hyatt is warning visitors of a security breach in its customer payment system.

The company said it had found malware on the payment processing computers for the hotels it managed.

Hyatt's global president of operations Chuck Floyd said that the problem had been fixed, but advised past customers to check bank statements for any unusual activity.

"As soon as we discovered the activity, we launched an investigation," he said.

The Chicago-based Hyatt group has 627 properties in its portfolio, although it said only the 318 it managed directly were affected by the malware, with franchised hotels unaffected.

The company did not say whether the malware had led to any customer information being accessed, but did say it had hired independent cybersecurity experts to help investigate.

Hyatt has set up a webpage to communicate updates to its customers.

"We have taken steps to strengthen the security of our systems, and customers can feel confident using payment cards at Hyatt hotels worldwide," said Mr Floyd.

Hyatt is not the first hotel group to admit it has had to tackle such a cybersecurity breach.

The Hilton, Mandarin Oriental, Starwood and Trump Collection hotel groups have also faced security problems with customer payment information in 2015.

From www.bbc.com

Travelore Consumer Alert: List of Wines Cited In Lawsuit As Having High Arsenic Levels

By The Associated Press

The 83 bottles of wine cited in a lawsuit this week as having dangerously high levels of arsenic came from 28 California wineries and were bottled under 31 different brand labels. Some of the labels included several different types of wine, such as merlot, chardonnay, burgundy, rose, etc.

Those labels and the types of wine cited in the complaint:

— Acronym (GR8RW Red Blend).

— Almaden (Heritage White Zinfandel, Heritage Moscato, Heritage Chardonnay, Mountain Burgundy, Mountain Rhine, Mountain Chablis).

— Arrow Creek (Coastal Series Cabernet Sauvignon).

— Bandit (Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon).

— Bay Bridge (Chardonnay).

— Beringer (White Merlot, White Zinfandel, Red Moscato, Refreshingly Sweet Moscato).

— Charles Shaw (White Zinfandel).

— Colores Del Sol (Malbec).

— Glen Ellen by Concannon (Glen Ellen Reserve Pinot Grigio, Glen Ellen Reserve Merlot).

— Concannon (Selected Vineyards Pinot Noir).

— Cook's (Spumante).

— Corbett Canyon (Pinot Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon).

— Cupcake (Malbec).

— Fetzer (Moscato, Pinot Grigio).

— Fisheye (Pinot Grigio).

— Flipflop (Pinot Grigio, Moscato, Cabernet Sauvignon).

— Foxhorn (White Zinfandel).

— Franzia (Vintner Select White Grenache, Vintner Select White Zinfandel, Vintner Select White Merlot, Vintner Select Burgundy).

— Hawkstone (Cabernet Sauvignon).

— HRM Rex Goliath (Moscato).

— Korbel (Sweet Rose Sparkling Wine, Extra Dry Sparkling Wine).

— Menage A Trois (Pinot Grigo, Moscato, White Blend, Chardonnay, Rose, Cabernet Sauvignon, California Red Wine).

— Mogen David (Concord, Blackberry Wine).

— Oak Leaf (White Zinfandel).

— Pomelo (Sauvignon Blanc).

— R Collection By Raymond (Chardonnay).

— Richards Wild Irish Rose (Red Wine).

— Seaglass (Sauvignon Blanc).

— Simply Naked (Moscato).

— Smoking Loon (Viognier).

— Sutter Home (Sauvignon Blanc, Gerwurztraminer, Pink Moscato, Pinot Grigio, Moscato, Chenin Blanc, Sweet Red, Riesling, White Merlot, Merlot, White Zinfandel).