Starwood Hotels & Resorts, the international hotel chain that owns and operates hotels under the Westin, Sheraton, W Hotels, St. Regis, and Le Méridien brands, has announced on Friday that point of sale systems at 54 of its hotels in North America have been compromised. "Promptly after discovering the issue, Starwood engaged third-party forensic experts to conduct an extensive investigation to determine the facts. Based on the investigation, malware was detected that affected certain restaurants, gift shops and other point of sale systems at the relevant Starwood properties," the company explained. "The malware was designed to collect certain payment card information, including cardholder name, payment card number, security code and expiration date. There is no evidence that other customer information, such as contact information or PINs, were affected by this issue.