Cyber Security in the Hospitality Industry: Comprehensive Guide

Unlike other industries, the hospitality industry has become a focal point of attraction for cybercriminals and hackers.

Though the industry has slowly adapted to technological innovations, hackers are now targeting hotels from single properties to multinational corporations.

Whether it's enhancing guest experience or streamlining hotel operations, hoteliers have become technologically dependent on these technologies, be they check-in kiosks, digital keycards, and IoT.

This startling statistic indicates the rising need for data security for hotels, resorts, and hospitality establishments.

According to Cornell University and Freedom Pay, 31% of hospitality service providers reported incidents of data breaches. 

That's why hoteliers need to be mindful of cybersecurity in the hospitality industry and adopt key measures to prevent financial losses and protect the hotel's reputation.

This in-depth guide talks about common cybersecurity threats that are on the rise in the hospitality industry, some popular case studies of luxury hotels along with best practices you should follow to deal with these data breaches.

Common Cyber Security Threats in the Hospitality Industry

These are some common cybersecurity attacks that happen in the hospitality industry. These are mentioned below-

1. Point of sale (PoS) attacks

PoS attacks are the most common security threats that attack third-party vendors.

Cybercriminals and hackers know hotels process daily transactions through PoS terminals at restaurants, bars, and food outlets. 

Such entry points become a way for hackers to gain authorized access to guest’s credit card information. They can steal payment card information and engage in fraudulent transactions. 

These losses occur because of weak passwords or insecure remote access. 

PoS attacks result in financial losses for customers and affect the hotel’s credibility. 

2. Dark hotel hacking

Dark hotel hacking is an attacking group that aims to target hotels by gaining access to Wi-Fi systems. They will infiltrate the hotel’s wi-fi and steal sensitive information from high-class business guests.

They convince the hotelier and its guests by showing a forged certificate that a website is safe and prompt them to update the software. When they click on it, software is downloaded that accesses guest's information. 

After downloading the software, their information is leaked through hotel wi-fi and other servers.

3.DDoS attacks

The acronym of DDoS attacks stands for distributed denial of service attack. 

DDoS involves sending massive amounts of traffic to the hotel’s website or the network that it becomes temporarily unavailable.

Cybercriminals hack into an array of systems from security cameras to your hotel system.

As a result, the system crashes and eventually, it affects the customer's experience. 

4. Ransomware

It's costly damage to your hotel business as it locks your system and restricts you and your hotel staff from accessing important files.

The hotelier receives a window popup showing the message that they can restore access once they pay a hefty ransom amount to hackers.

MGM Resorts, a prominent hospitality chain faced this issue, and hackers temporarily disabled their online reservation system and digital room keys. 

As a result, they experienced more than $100 million in revenue loss.

5. Phishing attacks

These attacks are more common in the hospitality sector across all other industries.

In Phishing, the unauthorized party sends an e-mail to your hotel staff and asks them to click on those malicious links and attachments. 

It then asks the receiver to share the financial details and other passwords. 

Another instance can be when a criminal acts like a dissatisfied ransomware customer who tries to inform the hotel staff and send an e-mail about the scam that happened to him/her.  

Once the hotel employee opens the follow-up email, a malicious file activates and the hacker gains access to the network. 

Popular examples of data breaches in hotels

Let’s discuss some of the well-known examples of hotel chains that face security threats as given below-

1. Data breach at Mariott

The Mariott hotel chain faced data breaches a couple of times. The hackers get unauthorized access to their guest reservation database of Starwood hotels and resorts. 

The incident took place in 2014 but the hotelier reported it in 2018. 

The data breach occurred before Mariott completed its acquisition journey.  

Then Mariott International faced another data breach incident in 2020. They noticed that someone accessed the database of guests using the login credentials of 2 employees.  

It was the worst data breach that could ever happen in the hospitality industry as the hackers gained access to the details of 5.2 million guests. 

Some of these details include- 

• Guest preferences 
• Loyalty account information 
• Additional personal details such as gender, company 
• Contact details

2. InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG)

IHG is a British MNC that manages Crown Plaza and other Holiday Inn brands in 100 countries. They faced a cyberattack and the hackers accessed their booking channel and some parts of their technology system.

Moreover, hackers stole guest’s debit and credit card data as the malware was infected at the front desk on 29 September – 29 December 2016. 

The attackers hijacked the card data (card number, expiry date, verification code) through a payment card magnetic stripe. 

3. Hilton hotel security breach

Hilton was fined $7,00,000 for a credit card data breach that first took off in 2014 and then in 2015. Hackers exposed the cardholder information of customers. More importantly, the hotelier did not inform its customers about such an incident.

Then, again in 2015, attackers accessed 363,952 credit card numbers of their guests. 

4. Wyndham Hotel security breach

Wyndham data breach took place between 2008-2010. Hackers attacked the main network of their subsidiaries and stole the credit card information of 6,19,000 customers.  

As a result, the Federal Trade Commission held Wyndham accountable for data breaches and imposed fraudulent charges of $10.6 million.

Best Practices for Cybersecurity in Hotels and Restaurants

Cyberattacks have grown steadily in the hospitality industry and bad actors are putting their best efforts into hacking hotel systems and gaining access to sensitive guest information.  

The world’s biggest hotel chains like Hilton Hotels and Resorts, InterContinental Hotels Group, and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts experience data breach cases.  

Although these hoteliers adopted stringent security measures to protect themselves against data theft, still hackers tried to steal their sensitive information resulting in the breaking of consumers’ trust and affecting the hotel’s reputation.

No matter what the size of your hotel is, attackers won’t stop because they know that modern hotel chains have become technologically dependent.

Let’s discuss some of the best hotel cybersecurity practices you should be aware of-

1. End to End Encryption

Ensure that POS systems are end-to-end encrypted as these are the primary focal point for cyberattacks. Encryption is the best way to deal with this as it transforms your information into an unreadable format and only those having a decryption key can understand the information. 

It keeps confidential guest information such as cardholder details, credit card numbers, and security codes. Payment data has always been vulnerable to malicious attacks.  

That’s why hoteliers need to keep the payment devices and methods PCI DSS compliant. 

2. Train your Hotel Staff

Another hotel cybersecurity strategy is training your hotel staff on the importance of data storage. Many times, employees don’t know whether they are interacting with potential vulnerabilities that might pose significant damage to the hotel and its guests.  

They are susceptible to various attacks as they unintentionally open malicious attachments from unknown sources which damage their hotel security. 

Organize training programs on cybersecurity awareness so that they are duly aware of the malicious attacks that are more common in the hospitality industry. They should have the know-how of how to use the PoS system. 

So, make sure to cover the following aspects in your training program -

• Log out their devices when they’re away from them.
• Don’t respond to malicious e-mails from unknown sources.
• Ask them to change their passwords regularly.
• Report any suspicious attempt to the IT department. 

3. Continuous Monitoring

You never know which potential threat is going to happen and before it becomes a serious concern for hoteliers, they should spot those threats.  

So, they should be proactive in monitoring systems from time to time to uncover vulnerabilities in advance.

Small size hotels can use firewalls to prevent anyone from accessing files on their system. At the same time, a mid to large-sized hotel chain should invest in an in-house cybersecurity team or hire a security service provider.

4. Follow the basic security hygiene routine

One of the most important preventive measures that hotels can adopt is following up the basic security hygiene routine. It involves the following things- 

• Adopting a zero-trust policy architecture at your hotel implies “never trust, always verify” meaning don’t trust anyone even if the person is within your network. Thus, you can protect sensitive guest’s information from inside or outside attacks. 
• Enhance the security of your systems by using strong passwords. The password should be a mix of characters, symbols, and numbers. 
• Maintain a backup of your files, systems, and reports. 

Regulatory Compliance and Standards in the Hospitality Industry

1. GDPR compliance

The acronym of GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. This ensures that hotels of all sizes comply with GDPR as they deal with guests all around the globe. 

When a hotel is GDPR compliant, they care about their guests and aim to protect their sensitive information. It states that hotels should keep guest's data transparent in storing and managing it.

Additionally, you should conduct a thorough data audit to know where the data is coming from and how it’s going to be used.  

If a data breach incident happens in a hotel, they should report the same to the supervised authority.  

As a hotel marketer, you should be updated about new GDPR rules about guest databases. If you’re sending a promotional e-mail campaign to a prospective person who never stayed at your hotel, consent should be fairly given. 

When sending a promotional campaign, you can ask the guest to opt in for these promotional offers if they’re interested in receiving updates. 

Failure to comply with GDPR compliance imposes financial penalties on you (€ 20 million or 4% of the company’s annual revenue turnover whichever is higher) and eventually affects your hotel’s reputation. 

2. PCI Compliance

PCI compliance stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. This compliance states that a business entity that deals in processing and managing credit card payments is bound to protect the cardholder's information. 

Even if a guest goes for a spa appointment or a room reservation, PCI compliance applies to every purchase.

Being a non-PCI complaint means you’re ready to bear a large fine in case a data breach happens. 

Wrapping Up

Data breaches have become an inseparable part of the hospitality industry.

Of course, you can’t control such data breaches but taking proactive cybersecurity measures can help you reduce its impact before it ditches your customers and affects your public image. 

When renowned luxury hotel chains such as Hilton and Mariott experienced data breaches. Then, you never know when the ball will be in your court.

So, to take care of your hotel cybersecurity needs, we came up with an all-in-one hotel management solution that is PCI-compliant and follows the GDPR security standards.