Nordic Choice Hotels, one of the Nordic region’s largest hotel chains, has confirmed it was the target of a cyberattack on its systems from the Conti ransomware group. The incident primarily impacts the hotel’s guest reservation and room key card systems. Although there is no indication of passwords or payment information being affected, information pertaining to guest bookings was potentially leaked. The Scandinavian hotel chain, with its brands — Comfort, Quality and Clarion, employs over 16,000 staff members and has 200 properties across Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltics.
The company released a statement on its website which read: ‘Nordic Choice Hotels’ IT systems were hit by a virus attack on the night of December 2. The attack primarily affected the hotel systems that handle reservations, check-in, check-out and creation of new room keys.
‘We work continuously to handle the situation and apologise for the inconvenience this causes to our guests, customers and employees’.
Sam Curry, Chief Security Officer, Cybereason, offered the following comment: “If Conti’s history is anything to go by, chances are information was leaked and access to [Nordic Choice Hotels’] system may even be up for sale on the black market. The Conti ransomware gang has carried out hundreds of destructive attacks on companies around the world since March 2020.
“To stop the Conti scourge, Cybereason recommends companies deploy Endpoint Detection and Response software on their endpoints. In addition, keep systems patched, regularly remind employees not to open attachments from unknown sources, don’t visit dubious websites, backup files to remote servers and protect networks using organisational firewalls, proxies, web filtering and mail filtering.”
