Washington, Nov 30: Marriott International said Friday that up to 500 million hotel guests may have had their data compromised in a hack of the Starwood reservation database.

Marriott said it was alerted on September 8 that there had been an attempt to hack their reservation database in the United States.

The company launched a probe, and discovered "that there had been unauthorised access to the Starwood network since 2014".

They discovered "that an unauthorized party had copied and encrypted information, and took steps towards removing it".

On November 19 Marriott "was able to decrypt the information and determined that the contents were from the Starwood guest reservation database".

Hotels in the Starwood network include Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton and W Hotels.

"We deeply regret this incident happened," said Arne Sorenson, Marriott's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We fell short of what our guests deserve and what we expect of ourselves."

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Mumbai (PTI): Police have arrested a man and seized over 500 grams of heroin worth Rs 2.54 crore in the illicit market from him in Mumbai, officials said on Friday.

The police's Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) made the drug seizure in Santacruz in the western suburbs. The operation was conducted by the Kandivali unit of the ANC on Thursday as part of a special crackdown against drug trafficking in the area, they said.

Acting on specific inputs, an ANC team conducted a raid in Santacruz (East) and intercepted a man. During a search, the team recovered 508 grams of high-grade heroin from his possession, an official said.

The seized contraband, a highly addictive, opioid drug derived from morphine, is estimated to be worth Rs 2.54 crore in the international market, he informed.

Following the seizure, a case was registered against the man under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, and he was formally placed under arrest in the early hours of Friday.

The police are currently investigating the source of the drug and trying to identify the intended recipients of the consignment, he said.