The Sunday Herald newspaper of Scotland is at odds with the Best Western hotel chain in Germany over claims that a hacker stole records of 8 million customers and pulled off "the greatest cyber-heist in world history."

Best Western claims the incident was a significantly more minor affair, affecting only 10 customers at the one facility. Herald Hacks claimed a hacker installed a malicious program on a computer used for reservations at a Best Western hotel, and used it to steal a database containing details on every customer who checked into one of Best Western's 1,312 European hotels since 2007. The database was then flogged by the Russian mafia.

Best Western admits that a hacker infiltrated the computer network of one of its hotels in Berlin and installed a Trojan on one of the machines. However it was limited to the one hotel and said the hacker didn't have access to other facilities' networks. Only 10 customers were affected, adding that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are investigating.

There was no chance that the hacker could have taken credit cards and other data from the system for all guests, because guests' credit card and other data from its systems are purged within seven days of their checkout.

Iain Bruce, who is the Sunday Herald's technology editor, showed screen shots of Best Western's reservation system and personal details on one of the customers listed there. There is a tool that lets users search records dating back to 2007.  While there are only ten customers' names listed on the screen shot, the list appears to go on longer.