January 15, 2016 - Hyatt Hotels has found signs of malware designed to steal payment card information at 250 of its sites.

Reporting the results of a previously announced investigation, the giant hotel chain says that it has identified signs of unauthorised access to card data from cards used at 250 of its 627 properties in countries around the world between 13 August and 8 December last year.

The malware was designed to collect cardholder names, card numbers, expiration dates and internal verification codes from cards used onsite as the data was being routed through affected payment processing systems.

In a statement, the company insists it has worked with experts to remove the malware and strengthen its systems, and that the card networks and law enforcement authorities have been informed.

"Protecting customer information is critically important to Hyatt, and we take the security of customer data very seriously," says Chuck Floyd, global president of operations, Hyatt.

The Hyatt breach follows similar intrusions at other hotel chains, including Hilton, the Starwood group, Trump Hotels and Mandarin Oriental, over the last year or so.