Newington's Holiday Inn Express Possibly Affected by Data Breach

NEWINGTON, CT — If you stayed at a Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Candlewood Suites or Crowne Plaza hotel between Sept. 29 and Dec. 29, your credit card information may have been compromised. The national hotel chain's parent company InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), who also owns Candlewood Suites and Crowne Plaza, announced a major data breach that may have compromised customer's credit card information.

The company is reporting that 10 Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels in Connecticut may have been affected by the breach. IHG says it found malware on its credit card processing systems that tracked data from customer transactions, including guests' names, credit card numbers, expiration dates and internal verification code.

The following Connecticut hotels may have been affected by the breach:

• Holiday Inn Express on 309 East Main St. in Branford
• Holiday Inn on 100 East River Dr. in East Hartford
• Holiday Inn Express on 2014 N. Broad St. in Meriden
• Holiday Inn Express on 278 Old Gate Ln. in Milford
• Holiday Inn Express on 6 Coogan Blvd. in Mystic
• Holiday Inn on 35 Governor Winthrop Blvd. in New London
• Holiday Inn Express on 2553 Berlin Tpke. in Newington
• Holiday Inn on 10 Laura Boulevard in Norwich
• Holiday Inn Express on 120 Lanning Street in Southington
• Holiday Inn Express located at 346 Kelly Road in Vernon

IHG hired a cybersecurity firm to investigate the incident. While malware was not removed from the hotels' systems until the investigation in February and March of 2017, the group found no evidence that any breaches occurred after Dec. 29. The group's hotels had begun moving to use Secure Payment Solutions, a program that encrypts customer credit card information, before the incident began.

IHG customers who stayed at hotels outside the state can search properties affected by the breach on the company’s website. Customers may also call 855-330-6367 for more information between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

IGH has notified law enforcement and says it has been working with payment card networks and a cyber security firm “to confirm that the malware has been eradicated and (to) evaluate ways for franchisees to enhance security measures,” according to a company media release.

For more information about the breach, visit IHG online.

Patch’s Cody Fenwick and Sherri London contributed to this story