Data Breach Threat Grows for Hotel Companies as Cyberattacks Evolve

The threat of data breaches continues to grow for hotel companies as hackers’ methods of infiltration further evolves.

Though many parts of business slowed or paused during the pandemic, data breaches as a whole did not. Hotel companies are still a popular target for data thieves looking to gain personal information of guests and employees and monetize them or to hold sensitive information for ransom.

During the Hospitality Law Conference Washington, D.C., experts in data breaches and insurance spoke about how these breaches have changed and how best to respond to them.A Growing Threat

The data breaches have been nonstop with news breaking every month of another breach, said Dale Buckner, CEO of security solutions company Global Guardian. COVID-19 further complicated data security because of how many people have been working from home.

The issue is that if a company has its employees working from home, they’re running systems that connect back to the company. The employees may be using routers that are 10 years old and haven’t been updated using a weak password without an encrypted virtual private network. The Wi-Fi network they’re using may be open to the neighborhood.