Daixin Team ransomware group claims major cyber attack on Omni Hotels

The infamous Daixin Team ransomware group has claimed responsibility for a major cyber attack on Omni Hotels and has threatened to publish the stolen data unless a ransom is paid.

 

Earlier this month, Texas-based hotel chain Omni Hotels & Resorts said it was experiencing operational issues with its website that prevented front desk employees from booking new reservations, modifying existing reservations and accepting credit card payments.

 

Acknowledging customer complaints regarding the outage, Omni Hotels & Resorts said, “Our technology teams are continuing to work on restoring our systems that are currently down. Your business is very important to us; we appreciate your patience and apologise for the disruption.”

 

The resort chain later announced on social media and on its official website that the IT outage was a result of a cyber security incident that affected its internal systems since March 29.

 

“Since Friday, March 29, Omni Hotels & Resorts has been responding to a cyber attack on its systems. Upon learning of this issue, Omni immediately took steps to shut down its systems to protect and contain its data. As a result, certain systems were brought offline, most of which have been restored,” it said.

 

The company said it launched an internal investigation and took assistance from third party cyber security experts to understand the nature and scope of the incident. The hotel chain was also trying to determine whether any sensitive personal data of its guests or employees were compromised during the incident.

 

“As our team works diligently to restore the remainder of the systems to full functionality, we continue to welcome our guests and accept new reservations,” it added.

 

The Daixin Team ransomware group recently claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on Omni Hotels, listing the hotel chain as a victim on its data leak site.

 

According to screenshots shared by cybersecurity analyst and security researcher Dominic Alvieri, the group claims that the “stolen data includes sensitive data, including all records of all visitors from 2017 to the present.”

The hacker group did not reveal how much time it gave the hotel group to pay a ransom, but said the stolen data will be leaked soon.

 

 

Omni Hotels stated in a recent update that it continues to investigate a recent cyber attack on its systems with the assistance of a leading cybersecurity response group. “As part of this investigation, we have determined that limited information pertaining to a subset of our customers may have been impacted.

 

“It is important to note that the impacted data does not include sensitive information such as personal payment details, financial information, or social security numbers. It may include customer name, email, and mailing address, as well as Select Guest Loyalty program information. We have reported this matter to law enforcement,” it said.