Hotels and hospitality businesses are now the third most targeted by cyber attackers of all industry sectors. Despite being bricks-and-mortar enterprises — set up for physical enjoyment of their amenities — they have become a rich mine of data for hackers with nefarious intentions.

Before Covid-19 forced hotels into a two-year period of on-off closures, they were the victims of 13 per cent of cyber compromises, according to Trustwave’s 2020 Global Security Report — ranking just a little lower than retail and financial services companies.

And with hotels facing a difficult pandemic recovery and acute staff shortages, the increased use of technology to replace face-to-face services such as check-in and on-site payments has only raised this risk.

"Historically, hospitality has been a personal service but I think they have started to realise that technology can facilitate a lot of that,” says Tristan Gadsby, chief executive of hospitality consultancy Alliants.

Read the full article at Financial Times