Monzo customers and the Marriott group data breach

The Marriott hotel group just announced that more than 500 million customers have been affected by a data breach.

Based on what we know so far, you shouldn’t be at greater risk of financial fraud because no unencrypted card details have been leaked.

But we’re keeping a close eye on what’s happening and will let you know if that changes.

What we know so far
The Marriott hotel chain has said that around 500 million of their customers have been involved in a data breach. News reports say that someone had been able to access the guest reservation database of its Starwood division since 2014.

They were able to access a combination of 327 million people’s personal information, including their name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date, communication preferences, and the information on their ‘Starwood Preferred Guest’ account.

And for some of those people, they were also able to access payment card expiration dates, and encrypted payment card numbers.

How does this affect you?
The compromised card numbers were encrypted. That means that the information can’t be seen or used without a decryption key, and there isn’t any information to suggest that this key was compromised. That makes it very unlikely that anyone would be able to actually find out and use your card details, meaning you’re not at greater risk of financial fraud.

Based on what we know so far, you shouldn’t be at greater risk of fraud, even if you used your Monzo card at a Starwood hotel.

But we’re keeping a close eye on the news and checking to see if there’s been more fraud on Monzo cards that people have previously used at Marriott hotels.

If anything changes, we’ll update this post and take precautions to protect you if we need to.

Starwood is a brand that owns and operates the following hotel chains:

Westin Hotels
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
Four Points by Sheraton
W Hotels
St. Regis Hotels
Le Méridien
Aloft Hotels
Element Hotels
Design Hotels