The Baccarat Hotel In NYC Falls Victim To A Cyberattack

Republished By Plato

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A precautionary message

The Baccarat Hotel in New York City (NYC) is the latest major hospitality venue to fall foul of hackers in recent weeks. The CEO of the high-end property – which has suites that cost as much as $18,000 a night – sent an email to customers on Tuesday afternoon informing them that their personal information might be at risk following a cyberattack.

people should be suspicious of communications they receive

In the email obtained by the Daily Mail, Maggie Henriquez noted that while “there is no indication that any of our customers’ personal or confidential data has been compromised” people should be suspicious of communications they receive that try to get them to complete unusual requests.

Anyone who receives such messages should contact the hotel by phone to verify if it is legit or not. She emphasized that Baccarat takes the protection of customer data very seriously and that all of the company’s teams are working to resolve the issue.

A luxurious establishment

The parent company of the hotel also owns the French-based Baccarat fine crystal manufacturing operation, with both parties reportedly impacted by the attack. There are no details publicly known as of yet about the origins or the extent of the breach.

Baccarat started as a producer of fine crystal and gets its name from the region in France where the company began in 1764.

The hotel is on the corner of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue and has been open since March 2015. Its rooms start at about $900 per night and can reach as much as $18,000 for a suite, making it one of the costliest establishments in the entire city.

A couple of the well-known guests who have stayed at the hotel include Serena Williams and Kim Kardashian. One particularly eye-watering cost at the venue includes a gin-based cocktail that sets drinkers back $5,000.

An alarming trend

The hack at Baccarat is the latest in a flurry of similar breaches across other major hotel and casino operators.

MGM Resorts International faced significant disruption at its Las Vegas properties

Caesars Entertainment paid a $15m ransom after falling foul of hackers recently, while MGM Resorts International faced significant disruption at its Las Vegas properties following a successful social engineering attack.

MGM controls approximately 48,000 rooms in Las Vegas and was trying to regain control of its systems for more than a week, losing up to $8.4m in revenue every day. People were unable to access their rooms for a while, slot machines were malfunctioning, and payment systems were down.

Both MGM and Caesars are now facing a number of class-action lawsuits related to the cyberattacks.