Lately, there seem to be many stories of customer or client details falling into the wrong hands. The Best Western Hotel chain was one of the companies to suffer the same fate but their statement about the incident changed several times, adding to the confusion.
An Indian hacker (with links to a Russian mob) had stolen credit card details relating to 8 million customers of Best Western. The Glasgow newspaper, Sunday Herald informed the Hotel chain of this fact (and the implications) before a story was published. That was thought to be the end of the incident as the risk was taken care of and people informed.
However, after being initially grateful to the newspaper, Best Western issued a statement to the effect that the news was untrue, saying, "We have found no evidence to support the sensational claims ultimately made by the reporter and newspaper. " There was much confusion after the statement from Best Western, including debates over whether the hacking had occurred and attacks on The Herald's reporting.
Best Western issued another statement contradicting the earlier one and saying there had been a data breach but that only 10 customers had been affected (not 8 million). There is still confusion and reputations have been damaged.
One positive aspect is that the regulators are insisting on more timely and comprehensive responses to data leaks.
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