Also Read: Taj Hotel parent posts 37% rise in Q2 profit, revenue up 18%

In response to ET report suggesting of data breach, the Tata-owned hotel group said that it is investigating the matter. It also asserted that there is no suggestion of any current or ongoing security issue.

Taj Hotel group asked to pay ₹4 lakh in return of customer dataset

According to the ET report, a threat actor, “Dnacookies”, has demanded $5,000 (equal to ₹4,16,549) for the full dataset, which includes a lot of personal information of Taj Hotel group customers including their addresses, membership IDs, mobile numbers, etc. The customer data of the Taj Hotel group breached by Dnacookies is from 2014 to 2020.

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The threat actor also claimed that the consumer data has not been disclosed to anyone till now and has kept three conditions before seeking ransom, reported ET.

Also Read: Taj Hotels-parent IHCL’s consolidated net profit jumps 30% in April-June

In its first condition, the threat actor demanded the presence of a middle person, of admin designation on the forum, in the negotiation of any deal. It was made clear that there will be no splitting of data, and no more samples of the data will be provided, reported the business daily.

Also Read: IHCL-owned Taj to franchise Delhi airport hotel from Chalet

IHCL’s response to Taj Hotel data breach 

“We have been made aware of someone claiming possession of a limited customer data set which is of non-sensitive nature,” Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) spokesperson said in a statement.

The hotel group also admitted that the cybersecurity watchdog and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) are aware of the breach.

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“We are investigating this claim and have notified the relevant authorities,” said the spokesperson while underlining that the safety and security of customers’ data is of paramount importance to the company.

The hotel group is continuously monitoring its systems and there is no suggestion of any current or ongoing security issue or impact on business operations, the spokesperson added.

In addition to Taj, IHCL runs several hospitality properties under SeleQtions, Vivanta, Ginger, and others.

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Updated: 23 Nov 2023, 11:10 PM IST