Marriott CFO: Too Early to Estimate Costs of Data Security Incident

NEW YORK—It’s too early for Marriott International Inc. to estimate the costs of last week’s data security incident, according to CFO Leeny Oberg.

“I think any speculation about those kinds of numbers are wildly—every situation is different,” she said this morning at the Barclays Gaming, Lodging, Leisure, Restaurant And Food Retail Conference. “I think that’s probably one of my main messages here is any situation that you’ve seen from other companies, they are all highly individual, and no one should make an assumption about, well, if it was this way for one company, it will be that way for another.”

Last week, the Bethesda, MD-based hospitality company revealed there had been unauthorized access to the Starwood guest reservation database, which contained guest information relating to reservations at Starwood properties on or before Sept. 10, 2018.

“I think clearly you would expect that there will be material costs associated with this,” Oberg said.

Also, the executive noted Marriott’s cyber insurance. “We’re working with our insurance carriers to look into the elements of that coverage,” she said.