TECHNOLOGY
AMID THE WORST DATA BREACH IN HOTEL HISTORY , THE INDUSTRY URGENTLY NEEDS TO STEP UP SECURITY .
THEBIG
NEXT
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In the aftermath of Marriott International ’ s massive Starwood reservation system data breach , the largest such breach of 2018 , cybersecurity experts warn that protecting customer information and technology systems will only get harder .
“ The issues of guest personal data is obviously on everyone ’ s minds recently because of the Starwood / Marriott breach , but this is actually only a small subset of the challenges that a property faces from a security point of view ,” says Ed Moyle , general manager and chief content officer at Prelude Institute , which trains cybersecurity analysts .
“ In terms of the sheer volume of specialized , connected , ‘ purpose-built ’ equipment — everything from televisions to in-room streaming to telephones to plumbing and HVAC — there are very few industries that even come close ,” he says .
Marriott estimated in March that the breach involved about 18.5 million encrypted passport numbers and about 5.25 million unencrypted passport numbers . About 9.1 million encrypted payment card numbers were involved , of which approximately 385,000 were unexpired as of September 2018 . “ Thus far , we have not received any substantiated claims of loss from fraud attributable to the incident ,” CEO Arne Sorenson said in testimony to the U . S . Senate at that time .
“ One would hope the Marriott episode was a call to action , that it would result
Contributed by ELLIS BOOKER
in action ,” says John Burns , president of Hospitality Technology Consulting . “ I have not seen that .”
At the end of last year , Burns called on industry groups to take specific actions on a declared timetable . “ All of us in the lodging industry – and I include in this term not only traditional hotel operators but also shared accommodation representatives and vacation rental aggregators – need to devise and lead implementation of more stringent guest data security standards ,” he wrote . Among other things , Burns recommended that Hospitality Technology – Next Generation ( HTNG ), which already operates its Chief Information Security Officers Forum , and
46 hotelsmag . com May 2019