CHICAGO, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Hyatt Hotels Corp. said it discovered malware on its payment-processing computers, joining a list of hundreds of companies to be victimized by hackers this year.
The company issued a statement Wednesday saying the data breach affects the 258 worldwide locations it manages, but not those franchised under the Hyatt name. The company launched an investigation and "engaged leading third-party cybersecurity experts."
Hyatt encouraged its customers to review credit card account statements and to report unauthorized charges, and to call 1-877-218-3036 from the United States and Canada, or 1-814-201-3665 from elsewhere, with questions.
Data breaches exposed information from more than 178 million records in the past year, the Identity Theft Resource Center reported, adding 766 data breaches have been recorded through Tuesday, largely in the business and hospital management sectors of the economy.
An attack on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in June exposed 21.5 million records in June and the records of 78.8 million Anthem health care customers were exposed in February.
