Hackers Stole 700 K Customer Records of ‘ Choice Hotels ‘ Demanded RansomChoice Hotels exposed 700000 of its customers who had their personal information leaked over the Internet. The hotel industry giant had ordered the development of a new method but the data were not handled properly by their contractors. The hackers found the insecure database and tried to wipe it down but failed to deliver their file. Hackers managed to steal the data from an insecure MongoDb instance of 700000 Choice Hotels customers. The finding came from Bob Diachenko a researcher who spent much of his time searching around for unprotected databases but along with the specific set of data he also found a ransom note suggesting that somebody first discovered the unprotected database. The note requested 0.4 Bitcoin (around $4000) from the database owner who did not know what had happened until Diachenko sent out a message on July 2 to inform them. Typically the malicious actors should have wiped the database since the ransom was never paid, but the researcher believes that the automated script was incorrect. The database was managed by a Choice Hotels partner, who provided the data to create a resource that the hospitality franchisor based in Us required. In fact, the database held more than 5.6 million records and about 3.8Gb of data but Choice Hotels told the press that most of the records were “test data” and that this incident exposed 700,000 individuals. The leaked data includes full customer names of their addresses, email phone numbers and consent statuses. Option Hotels operates 6627 properties worldwide with their own brands including Ascend Hotel Range Cambria Hotels Comfort Sleep Inn Clarion Hotels MainStay Suites Suburban Extended Hotel WoodSpring Suites Econo Lodge Rodeway Inn Premium Inn and Choice Hotels Vacation Rental. If you have stayed in one of their 525500 rooms please contact Choice Hotels and inquire about your data security.