Data breach at Booking.com: hackers steal sensitive customer information and trigger countermeasures

Booking.com has now generated new customer reservation pins to prevent hackers from accessing them.

The company also clarified that no user addresses had been compromised, suggesting instead that accommodation addresses had been hacked.

However, the incident risks exposing affected customers to potential phishing scams.

A number of Reddit users have already reported receiving fraudulent messages on WhatsApp concerning their bookings.

However, it is unclear whether hackers had the opportunity to exploit the flaw some time ago.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that a Booking.com user received a phone call in December from someone claiming to be a Booking.com agent, but who was actually a imposter intent on stealing his credit card details.

When asked about this, Booking.com simply stated: 'We are committed to the security and protection of our customers' data. We recently noticed some suspicious activity involving unauthorised third parties gaining access to some of our customers' booking information. After discovering the activity, we took steps to contain the problem. We updated the pin code for these bookings and informed our customers.

The company did not specify how many users were affected or who might be responsible for the breach.

In the meantime, some customers claim to have received several emails about the breach, which prompted them to contact Booking.com on social media to ask if the emails were legitimate.