Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group confirms credit card breach

A Mandarin Oriental hotel location in London

Mandarin Oriental, an upscale hotel chain, confirmed a breach of its point-of-sale credit card systems in the US and Europe.

Mandarin Oriental said in a statement that it identified and removed the malware and is working with credit card agencies, law enforcement and forensic specialists.

“Unfortunately incidents of this nature are becoming an industry-wide concern and we have therefore also alerted our technology peers in the hospitality industry,” said the luxury hotel group.

About a year ago hotel management firm White Lodging Services Corp. said its point-of-sale systems were breached. Hackers accessed POS terminals in restaurants and lounges at 14 locations from Denver to Erie, Pa. and potentially got a hold of customers’ credit and debit card information including names, card numbers, security codes and expiration dates.

Mandarin Oriental did not say how many hotels were affected, or how many payment cards were accessed by the cyberattack. It said an “isolated number” of hotels were affected in the US and Europe and it does not think any other guests’ personal information were compromised.

“We are currently unable to confirm specific details because the forensic investigation is still underway,” the hotel said.

Addressing future guests, Mandarin Oriental said it has “put additional security measures in place at all hotels and is working to ensure everything possible is being done to protect our guests’ personal information.”