400GB of Data Stolen From Thai Hotel Chain

 The Desorden hacking group, believed to be behind Acer’s recent data breach, has struck again. This time they infiltrated the Centara Hotels & Resorts Thai luxury hotel chain. The cybercriminals reportedly stole 400GB of customer personal information, business data, and employee credentials.

What Happened?

Desorden claims to have accessed more than 400GB of files from five servers within the hotel network. The stolen files contained the personal data of millions of hotel guests, financial information, and other corporate data. According to the hacker group, the breach will affect any guest lodged in Centara Hotels & Resorts between 2003 and 2021. Additionally, it will also affect guests who made bookings up to December 2021.

On October 14, 2021, Centara Hotels & Resorts became aware of the cyberattacks. On receiving the notification, the luxury hotel hired a reputable, digital forensic consultant right away. Tasked with identifying and confirming which information was compromised, the consultant swung into action. Though the cybercriminal group allowed the company’s management a right to investigate the breach, they shared proof of the stolen database on RaidForums.

The hacker group writes,

“In the announcement, they managed(sic) that they have engaged a reputable consultant to investigate it immediately after we notified them, The management tried to recover their data and started negotiation with us on October 16, 2021. On October 17, they managed to recover part of the system and asked for proof that we breached them. The same day, within 10 minutes, we breached the exact same network of 5 servers and compromised it to show them that we have immediate access to their servers again.”

What Information was Compromised?

The forensic investigation revealed that there was an unauthorized access to the company’s network. It also showed that the hackers accessed customer information. This data includes names, phone numbers, booking information, email addresses, and home addresses of guests. The stolen files reportedly include several employee data.

The hackers also claimed that they have access to millions of passports and ID numbers. However, the company did not say if these vital hotel requirements were part of the stolen data during this cyber heist. These cyberattacks on the Restaurant’s Group network occurred over the course of 10 days.

According to Desorden, the cyberattack was to help Centara Hotels & Resorts minimize or prevent any future cyberattack. They said the Restaurant Group would not have been aware of the data breach without notification from them. Yet again, the Restaurant Group did not make any such comment.

Sources close to Desorden said that negotiations with Centara had begun over a $900,000 ransom payment. But on October 26, the restaurant group pulled out of the deal. Infuriated by this sudden turnaround, the hacker group is now threatening to leak the information to the public.

How did Centara Hotels Respond?

Centara Hotels & Resorts CEO Tos Chirathivat wrote,

“While the breach has been successfully contained, the investigation into the source, root cause, and complete extent of the incident remains ongoing, and we will provide more information when it becomes available.”

He made this statement after Centara Hotels launched a full investigation into the data breach.

To protect their customers, the CEO advised both past and present guests to take specific security measures. Such security measures include changing their passwords or creating stronger passwords as soon as possible. They were to be vigilant to any suspicious or unsolicited inquiries about their personal information.

Centara Hotels reminded each customer that the Restaurant group should never contact them to ask for any personally identifiable confirmation. If anyone has any specific inquiries, they can reach out to the Hotel’s data security team through these channels:

• Phone calls: +66 (0) 21066488
• Emails: infosecurity@chr.co.th