US government investigators increasingly believe that Chinese state hackers likely were responsible for the massive breach reported last month of Marriott’s Starwood chain hotel reservation system.
US government investigators increasingly believe that Chinese state hackers likely were responsible for the massive breach reported last month of Marriott’s Starwood chain hotel reservation system, which exposed the private information and travel details of as many as 500 million people, according to two people briefed on the government investigation.
These people cautioned the investigation is not yet complete, so definitive conclusions are not possible. But the sweep and seriousness of the hack, which took place over four years before being discovered, prompted immediate speculation that it was carried out by a foreign country.
Preliminary indications are the breach was conducted by hackers affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal information not yet ready for public release. The MSS, an intelligence and security agency, has been behind many of the Chinese government intrusions into sensitive US networks in recent years.
Some US intelligence officials believe that the breach was conducted to enrich the massive Chinese data sets on US and other citizens that have been amassed for years, the people said. Such breaches include the 2015 Office of Personnel Management intrusion, which compromised the personal data of more than 20 million government employees, family members and applicants, and also information collected during Chinese breaches of health care institutions such as Anthem and CareFirst.
The FBI and other intelligence agencies declined to comment.
The New York Times first reported that investigators believe the attackers likely were from a Chinese state intelligence service.
