• They Won't Go Away Even if COVID Does - Top Cybersecurity Issues Still Hitting Travel   

Excerpt from PhocusWire

The pandemic has forced companies to adopt digital processes more than ever before. 

Although these new ways of work, including online collaboration tools, have helped in facilitating remote working, they have simultaneously increased the potential risk of cyber attacks. 

While the industry can expect business to increase as restrictions are lifted, the potential risk of cyber crime will also heighten. 

Cybersecurity and COVID-19

During the pandemic, phishing attacks aiming to get access to personal information such as login credentials have dramatically increased.

These attacks have the sole purpose of credential theft.

Amidst the fear of the pandemic scammers have played on the anxiety of consumers subject lines of coronavirus and furlough in phishing emails.

In the post pandemic society when people are going on holiday the scammers can use the subject lines of “vaccination” and “COVID passports” which may prompt people to click on those fake links resulting in the theft of data.

Therefore, it is imperative to spread awareness about how scammers have been exploiting government schemes and social circumstances for their personal gains.

In the post pandemic landscape, with a rise in remote working and hybrid workspaces, organizations also need to take proactive actions such as implementing cloud based solutions to prevent a cyber attack.

The surge of online holiday bookings, at the time when the businesses are at the peak of adapting to new working models with their digital transformation, makes it imperative for businesses to adopt strict cyber security measures.

It is already clear from PwC’s Global Trust Insights Survey that employers have started to increase their budgets for cyber security because the pandemic has increased the likelihood of a cyber attack.

Businesses operating in the leisure and travel sector are advised to adopt cloud based solutions to protect their data.

It is here that Zero Trust Architecture comes into play, enabling companies to add an extra layer of protection on every login attempt.

This protocol trusts no actor who wants to access the data. It authenticates every single login attempt whether from outside or inside. The solution keeps track of the time and duration of the logins and interrupts the service in the case of a detected risk.

The architecture also allows organizations to keep track of the location of the actor who is accessing data with the time and duration hence avoiding any scenario of insider threat.

There is no doubt that hackers will keep on trying to attack however an end-to-end cloud based solution can serve as a powerful defence.

Looking at the past 18 months, there is no doubt that organizations have had to consider how they operate. With a ‘new norm’ of remote working the tourism and leisure industry will continue to be an attractive target for cyber criminals.

During a time of digital transformation, leisure and tourism companies should look to build cyber insurance policies into their security plans. This provides them with immediate support at the time of any crisis to help recover as much lost cost as possible.

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