Marriott says data breach affected 5.2M customers

March 31 (UPI) -- The personal information of as many as 5.2 million Marriott customers was compromised in a data breach earlier this year, the hotel chain announced Tuesday.

Marriott International said the breach happened in mid-January.

"At the end of February 2020, the company identified that an unexpected amount of guest information may have been accessed using the login credentials of two employees at a franchise property," the company said in a statement.

"Upon discovery, the company confirmed that the login credentials were disabled, immediately began an investigation, implemented heightened monitoring, and arranged resources to inform and assist guests."

Marriott said it has notified authorities of the breach and is conducting its own investigation.

Among the information believed to have been comprised were names, addresses, email address, phone numbers, loyal account information, business names, genders, birthdays, partnerships and room preferences.

"Although Marriott's investigation is ongoing, the company currently has no reason to believe that the information involved included Marriott Bonvoy account passwords or PINs, payment card information, passport information, national IDs, or driver's license numbers," the hotel chain added.

In addition to notifying potentially affected guests, Marriott set up a website dedicated to providing information for concerned customers at www.mysupport.Marriott.com.

The new breach is Marriott's second in 16 months. The chain said a breach in November 2018 may have exposed information belonging to about 500 million guests across multiple hotel brands it owns.