Marriot on Friday reported a data breach affecting the information of 500 million of its Starwood customers. The stolen information includes name, phone number, email addresses, passport number and in some cases credit card numbers and expiry dates. While the company is still taking measures to do damage control for the second-biggest breach in history (after Yahoo’s data breach), here is what consumers can do to protect themselves:
- Look out for any suspicious activity on your bank account. Continuously monitor all activities and immediately report any unauthorised transactions
- Limit the information you share with your company. A travel company may ask for your passport number, but customers can also provide a different form of identification. Try not saving credit card details on untrusted websites
- Reset any reused passwords associated with your Starwood account. Select strong passwords that are difficult to predict and consider using a password manager.
- Look out for updates from Marriot but be aware of phishing emails trying to take advantage of the news relating to the breach.