More than a hundred Dutch hotels have been affected by a data breach

Several Dutch and Belgian hotels have been affected by a data breach, catering group Hospecs told NOS, among others. At least a hundred Dutch hotels have been affected, but reports are also coming in from Belgium and Ireland.

Hospecs put a special page online last week to collect reports about the data breach. "The reports are pouring in," managing director Tim Vissers told NOS. He thinks the data breach was caused by a vulnerability in the software that hotels use. It is not yet known exactly in which software the leak lies.

Phishing

Customer data and reservation data were stolen in the data breach, NOS writes. This morning, the Belgian newspaper HLN reported that hundreds of Flemish hotel guests have fallen victim to phishing with data from the data breach. Vissers tells NOS that dozens of phishing messages are sent to hotel customers every day. That could increase even further, he warns.

Hospecs operates hotels and provides services to other catering companies. Vissers informed Tweakers that the company collects the reports to identify the extent of the problem and to possibly find out which party(ies) caused the data breach. He also hopes that the hotels can take a better stand against the party(ies) responsible for the data breach by uniting. Ultimately, Vissers wants to transfer the data to the trade organization Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN) with the hotels' permission.

KHN confirms that it has received signals of phishing attempts and advises consumers to remain alert. The organization says it will monitor signals and developments and coordinate with entrepreneurs, sector parties and the European umbrella organization Hortec. "Where necessary, we bring additional information and action perspectives to the attention of entrepreneurs, so that they can take timely measures to limit risks," a spokesperson said.