Data breaches within the hotel industry are a growing concern, with hackers targeting personal and credit card information that is collected during a guest’s stay. Last year, hackers breached hotel giant Marriott and had access to the sensitive information of more than 300 million guests. In a second attack, another 5 million guests were put at risk. The year before, MGM reported a data breach that affected over 10 million hotel guests. The pandemic has increased the threat level to data security and hotel fraud is becoming more common.
Beyond the financial ramifications and large liability to hotel chains, identity theft leaves long lasting marks on those who have been targeted. Many people whose information has been exposed and stolen, report long lasting effects including anxiety, financial stress and worry for the security of friends and family members.
Individuals can take precautions to protect themselves, such as using complex passwords, reviewing credit reports and not sharing personal information with unverified sources; but what can be done when this isn’t enough? What measures can hotels take to further protect their guests?
Routinely changing employee passwords and verifying the cloud security of data management platforms could help defend against data breaches and attacks. Further verifying the security measures used by any vendors collecting data is also a key component to defending against potential data breaches.
SurferQuest was designed with this in mind. Currently SurferQuest is serving thousands of hotels, and is installed within many of the large hotel chains we have all grown to love. To date, SurferQuest has never experienced a data breach after over two decades in business. This is due to an important security feature that removes any and all guest information from public devices after each use. Any personal information that has been entered into a guest computer or tablet is completely erased after every use and the device is restored to start state. It is a smaller component within the large scheme of hotel operations, but is one that comes with the guarantee of security and peace of mind. Once it is installed, vulnerable guest devices are one less worry.
While data hacking and breaches may always be a threat, we can all take extra precautions to ensure that it doesn’t happen. Visit http://www.surferquest.com for more information.
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