How Hotel Cybersecurity Threats Have Changed During The Pandemic

Hotel industry cybersecurity experts say both the "nature and velocity" of cybersecurity threats have changed for the worse during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking during the American Hotel & Lodging Association Safety Summit, Jason Stead, chief information security officer for Choice Hotels International, said the onset of the pandemic spurred many bad actors to quickly pivot and use "COVID as a theme and as a way to try to infiltrate their way into hotels."

"They would contact hotels under the guise of safety and security," he said. "They would send those hotels phishing emails trying to suggest they've got products and other things, but it was really just a method or a theme they were relying on over that period of time."