The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas was the latest large chain to be the victim of a malware attack. Officials are afraid that the malware may have made consumer information vulnerable to hackers. In light of the recent major breaches that occurred in Target, Home Depot, and others the company is taking the threat seriously and working to find the source of the attack. Currently, Hard Rock is working with law enforcement and affected credit card companies to investigate the attack.
The potential breach could include the names, CVV security codes, and credit card numbers of consumers. However, PIN numbers are supposedly safe, said Hard Rock officials.
The malware was discovered on POS on April 3, but was limited to only debit and credit card transactions. Investigators believe hackers had access to information between Sept. 3, 2014 and April 2, 2015. They have traced the point of origin to the Hard Rock’s bar, retail locations, and the company’s restaurant. Officials state that the hotel, casinos of John Varvatos, Reliquary Spa & Salon Nobu, Affliction, Rocks, Hart & Huntington Tattoo were not affected.
Right now the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas is asking customers during this time period to verify that their bank accounts have not been jeopardized. In addition, the company is also providing free identity protection services to those that may have been impacted by the malware.
Currently, authorities have discovered that about 173,000 different cards were affected during the 8 month period. A New Hampshire security breach notification relays that although the infiltration was discovered on April 3, it was actually contained on April 2 because of precautionary measures made by the Hard Rock Hotel.
This is the latest in major security breaches of a large chain. The change to chip enabled debit and credit cards that will be occurring in October is supposed to virtually eliminate large scale security breaches. Until then, and even after, merchants in the hospitality industry like hotels must have their payment processes monitored at every turn. The experienced payment processors at eMerchantBroker.com will monitor your hotel merchant account to ensure it is secure. Contact us to learn more.