Hotel Cybersecurity: a reactive or proactive response?

To benefit from digital advances, it is necessary to plan a cybersecurity strategy that mitigates the risks that may arise. Is the hospitality industry prepared for a possible cybersecurity attack?

According to the latest risk-and-conflict report from the National Cybersecurity Center, published in June 2022, we can observe a rising percentage of crimes and attacks, related to IT and Cybersecurity. The attacks registered in Portugal rose from 7.4% to 7.8%, only in 2021. In the report, the most affected sectors and divisions are related to finance and economic centers, such as the Portuguese Bank, Digital Infrastructure, and Internet Service providers. Whereas the government area with the most incidents recorded to date is the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, according to the data register by CERT.PT, a national cybersecurity team that integrates the CNCS. 

Within this context, our CIO Marco Correia shared his vision and inputs on the matter of Cybersecurity, in an exclusive interview with Publituris: 

What are the risks?

Within the hospitality and tourism sector, Marco Correia believes that “due to the proliferation of credit card and personal information data, there are certain risks for cybersecurity, targeting the POS systems’’. Mercan Properties CIO emphasizes “the need of an oriented service to simplify and facilitate customer requests, means that there are numerous reports of tourist entities being with severe data loss, through social engineering”.

Who's at risk?

For Marco Correia, “it is wrong to believe that a small company isn’t appealing for a cybercriminal”. The CIO explains that "many of the malware technologies are automated and can scan the internet in searching for vulnerable systems”. 

How can the hospitality industry act and prevent possible cyberattacks? 

“The Cybersecurity issue is of high complexity and it's extremely difficult for small-medium companies to detain knowledge or the necessary skills within doors”. Marco Correia points out the “substantial and reputational risks of a cyberattack”, reinforcing that, as soon as there is a financial possibility, a company should invest in Cybersecurity, by “hiring cybersecurity services, managed by specialized host”. 

What’s Portugal's panorama on Cybersecurity 

Regarding the topic of cybersecurity, Marco Correia highlights that although there's still a long way to go, “despite the medium-low digital literacy” when it comes to tourism and the hospitality sector, it is “notorious the effort and commitment to modernizing critical systems, such as the PMS or credit card processing”, as it adds the CIO of Mercan Properties. 

Read the full article, here! 

Fonte: Publituris