Singapore luxury resort says data of 665,000 customers hacked

The breach of Marina Bay Sands was the latest in a string of major cybersecurity incidents reported in the city-state.

The Marina Bay Sands integrated resort lights up in tribute to the healthcare workers and people staying home to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Singapore, April 10, 2020. Photo by Reuters

Last week public healthcare institutions had their internet access disrupted by a flood of malicious traffic in a so-called distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.

Marina Bay Sands, which is owned by U.S. casino giant Las Vegas Sands, said it became aware of the "data security incident" on Oct. 20, according to an email sent to some customers on Tuesday and seen by AFP.

"Investigations have since determined that an unknown third party accessed customer data of about 665,000 non-casino rewards programme members," the message from chief operating officer Paul Town said.

The data was accessed on Oct. 19 and 20. It included the names, email addresses, phone numbers, countries of residence and membership numbers of shoppers, the company said.

"Based on our investigation, we do not have evidence to date that the unauthorized third party has misused the data to cause harm to customers," Town said.

Town said the membership data of its casino rewards programme appeared to have been unaffected.

Marina Bay Sands was working with a cybersecurity firm to strengthen its systems, Town said.