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Hotel giant IHG blames cyberattack for booking system outage • TechCrunch


InterContinental Hotels Group, also known as IHG Hotels & Resorts, has confirmed that they were hit by a cyberattack that brought down their booking system and mobile app.

UK-headquartered IHG operates some of the world’s largest hotel chains, including Holiday Inn, Crown Plaza and Regent hotels. The company operates more than 6,000 hotels in more than 100 countries, covers more than 3,000 in the United States, and serves more than 150 million guests annually.

In submit a third application with the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the company confirmed that “parts of its technology systems were subjected to unauthorized activity”.

IHG declined to confirm the nature of the incident when asked by TechCrunch, but noted in the filing that “it is working to restore affected systems,” suggesting a possibility. ransomware attack – a theory backing of some network security experts.

It is unclear who was behind the cyber attack, or if or what data was stolen. IHG said in its filing that the cyberattack “significantly disrupted” its booking channels and mobile app, which had been unusable since Monday. The hotel chain added that it is working with third-party cybersecurity experts.

When contacted by email, IHG spokesman Alex O’Neil declined to comment on the statement sent to the London Stock Exchange.

In a separate email, IHG spokeswoman Amy Shields told TechCrunch that the incident was not related to a recent ransomware attack against an Istanbul-based IHG-owned subsidiary of Holiday Inn, which was claimed by the LockBit ransomware group. Shields described the attack as “an isolated incident at one of our third-party franchised hotels”.

This is not the first time IHG has suffered a cyber attack. The hotel giant said in April 2017 that 1,200 of its hotels had been compromised by a three-month cyberattack in 2016, saw hackers gain access to credit card data that was then used to make fraudulent payments. IHG has agreed to pay more than $1.5 million in a class-action lawsuit in 2020 following the breach.





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