
Ways Cyber Intruders Target Travel and Hospitality Industry
While the world fights the COVID-19 pandemic, cybercriminals are out in force with a slew of scams designed to prey on the confusion and panic. COVID-19 has made
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CIO Applications Europe | Tuesday, February 08, 2022

Major hospitality and travel companies have put a halt to the expiration of reward points and are extending loyalty memberships. Thousands of travelers' cumulative reward points are now at risk, as these accounts are susceptible to loyalty fraud or credential abuse
Fremont, CA: While the world fights the COVID-19 pandemic, cybercriminals are out in force with a slew of scams designed to prey on the confusion and panic. COVID-19 has made us all more comfortable working, playing, and purchasing online out of necessity.
This global shift to digital technologies and services has created a new opportunity for astute cybercriminals to launch highly sophisticated cyberattacks. With data breaches, ransomware, phishing, credential abuse, script attacks, and DDoS attacks, some cybercriminals target cyber vulnerabilities in industries most impacted by the current crisis.
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The Hospitality and Travel (H&T) industry is easy prey for threat actors because it has undergone a major shift in recent years; many H&T companies are becoming completely digitized in order to gain a competitive advantage and keep up with online travel aggregators. Reservation apps, payment processing systems, loyalty programs linked to other digital platforms for easy reward redemption, as well as complicated corporate networks all increase the likelihood of an attack.
To date, there have been numerous data breaches in the H&T industry, with only a few of them making headlines in recent years. The following are some of the most common cyber threats currently afflicting the H&T industry:
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Theft
According to the Retail and Hospitality Threat Trend Report, cybercrime affecting the H&T industry has been much wider in origin vectors such as online booking, in-hotel wi-fi networks, as well as other customer or B2B touchpoints that have been compromised. In late 2019, a France-based hotel booking firm suffered a data breach that affected 600,000 hotels worldwide. This supply chain incident trend is likely to continue as more businesses move data to new virtualized environments, such as the cloud as well as SaaS platforms.
Phishing Attacks
In the US, a new Corona Virus phishing scheme has emerged, joining similar schemes in Western Europe, United Kingdom, and Asia. Hackers are targeting mobile apps and websites by tricking users into clicking malicious links in order to steal credentials or deliver dangerous payloads of the most recent malware and ransomware strains. Cybercriminals are also employing "corona" or "COVID" as part of the URL in phishing attacks. These phishing schemes attempt to fool people by impersonating a hotelier, an online travel agency, or a travel company in order to steal their credentials.
Credential Abuse
With ongoing travel restrictions and concerns about the novel coronavirus, the H&T industry is changing its loyalty strategy by revising policies to benefit and retain its customer base. Major hospitality and travel companies have put a halt to the expiration of reward points and are extending loyalty memberships. Thousands of travelers' cumulative reward points are now at risk, as these accounts are susceptible to loyalty fraud or credential abuse.
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