Trump Hotel Collection, the high-end hotel chain owned by the billionaire Republican presidential hopeful and real estate developer Donald Trump, has confirmed a data security breach involving malware that the company says was on its payment systems for just over a year. The company said that between May 19, 2014, and June 2, 2015, it believes there “may have been unauthorized malware access to some of the computers that host our front desk terminals and payment card terminals in our restaurants, gift shops and other point-of-sale purchase locations.”
Stolen data could include credit and debit card information, including cardholders’ full names, account numbers, expiration dates, and security codes. An initial investigation conducted by the chain has so far uncovered no evidence of misuse of customer data. However, it is offering affected customers 12 months of free identity-theft protection as a precautionary measure and has advised affected customers to check their financial statements for signs of suspicious activity.
This is not the first case of point-of-sale systems being targeted by hackers, and very likely won’t be the last. Big name retailers like Home Depot and Target have been the victim of similar high-profile incidents in recent years.