New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced a $2.4 million multistate agreement with Sabre Corporation that resolves an investigation into the 2017 data breach of Sabre Hospitality Solutions’ hotel booking system. The breach exposed the data of approximately 1.3 million credit cards. In addition to the $2.4 million payment — $111,783.19 of which will go to the state of New York — Sabre will be required to make numerous changes to its security and notification protocols.
“Companies need to do a better job of notifying New Yorkers when their personal information has been breached,” said Attorney General James. “Sabre first failed its customers with a susceptible security system, then failed them when it came to provide proper notifications. Today’s agreement not only imposes a hefty fine on Sabre but will ensure that the company has the appropriate security and incident response plan in place so that its failure does not take place again.”
Sabre Hospitality Solutions, a business segment of Sabre, operates the SynXis Central Reservation system, which facilitates the booking of hotel reservations. SynXis connects business travel coordinators, travel agencies, and online travel booking companies on one end to Sabre’s hotel customers on the other. On June 6, 2017, Sabre informed its hotel clients of a data breach that had occurred between August 2016 and March 2017, which the business had disclosed in a 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the month before. Notice to the affected consumers was provided by the hotel-clients, resulting in some notices being issued as late as 2018, and some consumers receiving multiple notices stemming from the same breach.
Today’s agreement requires Sabre to include language in future contracts that specifies the roles and responsibilities of both parties in the event of a breach. It also requires Sabre to try to determine whether its clients have provided notice to consumers, and to provide the attorneys general a list of all the customers that it has notified. Finally, the agreement requires Sabre to implement and maintain a comprehensive information security program, implement a written incident response and data breach notification plan, implement specific security requirements, and undergo a third-party security assessment.
Joining Attorney General James in announcing today’s agreement are the attorneys general of Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
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