The Trump Hotel Collection, a chain of luxury hotel
properties tied to business magnate and now Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump, may have been the latest victim of a credit card breach,
according to KrebsonSecurity.
According to a report posted on Wednesday, as
per the data shared by several U.S.-based bank, the hotel collected appears to
the latest victim of credit card breach.
At first when they had contacted the company regarding
reports from sources at several banks who traced a pattern of fraudulent debit
and credit card charges to accounts that had all been used at Trump hotels, it refused
to comment.
However, the company later issued a brief statement from
Eric Trump, executive vice president of development and acquisitions.
“Like virtually every other company these days, we have been
alerted to potential suspicious credit card activity and are in the midst of a
thorough investigation to determine whether it involves any of our properties,”
the statement reads. “We are committed to safeguarding all guests’ personal
information and will continue to do so vigilantly.”
However, it is confirmed from various sources in the
financial industry, the company has little doubt that Trump properties in
several U.S. locations including Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles,
Miami, and New York are dealing with a card breach that appears to extend back
to at least February 2015.
According to the report, the incident would be the latest in
a long string of credit card breaches involving hotel brands, restaurants and
retail establishments.
“Magnetic-stripe based cards are the primary target for
hackers who have been breaking into retailers like Target and Home Depot and
installing malicious software on the cash registers: The data is quite valuable
to crooks because it can be sold to thieves who encode the information onto new
plastic and go shopping at big box stores for stuff they can easily resell for
cash,” the report reads.
It is said that merchants that have not yet installed card
readers In October 2015 and accept more secure chip-based cards will assume
responsibility for the cost of fraud from counterfeit cards.
While experts believe it may be years after that deadline
before most merchants have switched entirely to chip-based card readers.