DannLaw, one of the nation’s leading consumer protection law firms, is urging victims of the massive Starwood data breach to immediately take steps to both protect their personal information and preserve their right to seek financial compensation from the Marriott Corporation, Starwood’s parent company.
Last week Marriott announced that sensitive information belonging to 500,000,000 million people who used the company’s Starwood reservations system has been accessed by cybercriminals. According to the company the hackers copied names, addresses, dates of birth, passport numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, and encrypted credit card information from the Starwood reservation system. The company admits that the perpetrators may be able to overcome the encryption and use the credit card numbers.
“Starwood had a legal, ethical, and moral obligation to protect the information they obtained from consumers,” Atty. Marc Dann said. “The company utterly failed to meet those obligations and now as many as 500 million people are at risk of having their identities stolen and their credit damaged or ruined by cyber criminals. They must be held accountable for their actions.”
Atty. Dann noted that Marriott, like other companies that allowed customers’ personal data to be compromised, waited months to reveal that the reservation system had been hacked. “Even worse, cybersecurity experts agree that the company missed multiple opportunities to detect and/or prevent the breach since it occurred in 2014,” the former Ohio Attorney General said.
Those experts include Andrei Barysevich, a researcher with the security company Recorded Future Inc., who told the Wall Street Journal that a small breach the company suffered in 2015 should have set off alarms. “With all the resources they have, they should have been able to isolate hackers back in 2015,” he said. Instead, hackers mined the company’s reservation system for nearly four years.
“As a result, what could and should have been a minor problem has become one of the largest security failures in history,” Atty. Dann said. “Whether willful or careless, it appears that Marriott violated a number of consumer protection laws, and that means victims may be entitled to substantial compensation.”
Anyone who used the Starwood system to reserve a room at one of the following properties in the past four years may be at risk:
“Anyone who believes their personal or credit card information has been stolen should visit https://answers.kroll.com/, the website Marriott set up to deal with the problem and take advantage of the opportunity to enroll in WebWatcher for free,” Atty. Dann said. “But please, do not agree to any waiver or release the company offers via email, regular mail, or via phone. The last thing a victim of the company’s carelessness should do is surrender their right to hold Marriott accountable at a later date.”
Atty. Dann also urged anyone whose data may have been compromised to arrange a free consultation with the firm’s highly experienced legal team by calling 877-475-8100 or by completing the form that may be accessed at https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSfWi22blTFnoe5fLD…/viewform “We will be happy to walk people through the steps they need to take to preserve their rights under the law.”
Finally, Atty. Dann suggested that potential victims take the following steps to protect themselves and their families:
