Best Western security breach impacted only 10 customers

Posted by Caitlin on September 5th, 2008

On August 24, Glasgow's Sunday Herald reported that hackers had broken into Best Western's online reservation system and stolen 8 million customer records. The Scottish newspaper claimed that the data breach impacted every customer who stayed at any European Best Western hotel in 2007 or 2008. This story was picked up by countless other publications. Yet Best Western insists that while a data breach did occur, only 10 guests at a single hotel in Berlin were affected. The Sunday Herald reporter who came up with the number 8 million did so by simply extrapolating the number of Best Western hotels and hotel rooms in Europe. The reporter has yet to respond to questions about the story.

While Best Western could have pre-empted the exaggerated story by disclosing the breach earlier, their failure to do so is understandable, since the breach took place only 3 days before the story broke and the breach impacted just 10 customers.

Of course, we suggest that you subscribe to an identity theft protection service, which should eliminate the headache of worrying about whether or not companies are safeguarding your information carefully enough. To learn more about identity theft protection services, see our reviews and comparison.