In the 2014 Marriott breach, how many records were reported as compromised?

• A. 50
• B. 500
• C. 5,000
• D. 50,000

Answer: (B)

When evaluating a breach, the key point is the scale of records that were compromised and what that implies for risk and response. In the Marriott breach involving the Starwood database, the disclosure made in 2018 said that about 500 million guest records were compromised. That figure is orders of magnitude larger than thousands or even hundreds, illustrating how a breach can affect a vast number of people and require extensive remediation, notification, and regulatory scrutiny. The data involved often included personal identifiers like names, contact details, and in some cases passport numbers, which heightens the potential harm and the urgency of protective actions. The choices given represent much smaller numbers, so the real takeaway is recognizing the breach’s enormous scale—roughly five hundred million records—rather than any smaller figure.