Holiday Inn’s owner, Intercontinental Hotels Group, has confirmed that the company was hit by a cyber attack.
IHG, which owns some of the world’s largest hotel chains, issued a statement saying it is investigating “unauthorized access” to a number of its technology systems.
The UK-based company, which manages the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Regent hotels, said its “booking channels and other applications” have been disrupted since Monday.
“IHG is working to fully recover all systems as soon as possible,” the company said.
IHG confirmed that it assessed the nature, scale and impact of the incident and implemented its response plans, including appointing outside specialists to investigate the breach.
The company is also in the process of notifying regulators.
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In a statement, the company said: “We will support hotel owners and operators as part of our response to the ongoing service disruption. IHG hotels can continue to operate and take reservations directly.”
But many people trying to book accommodation have complained.
IHG did not say there was any loss of customer data.
It was also not specifically stated that it was a ransomware attack, but most speculation points in that direction.
Last month, a Holiday Inn in Istanbul was hacked by LockBit, which released stolen company data.
It is not known whether there is a connection between the attacks.
The hotel chain was also the target of a three-month security breach in 2017 that affected more than 1,200 of its franchise hotels across the United States.
The hack comes amid increased scrutiny of adequate countermeasures against cyberattacks, particularly against Western financial institutions, in the wake of heightened geopolitical tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.
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