Hospitality: When Will We See a Hotel Safe Data Pledge?
by Robert McGarvey
I applauded when I saw the headline earlier this year: “Marriott International faces class action suit over mass data breach.”
Hotel groups have mismanaged data security for at least a decade. This negligence has put our data in the crosshairs of cyber criminals.
In the Marriott case, the source of the malaise is Starwood, which Marriott acquired in a merger. With Starwood, the group also acquired a massive data breach. Hotel News Now reported that approximately 327 million guests were affected by the breach.
Why am I re-hashing this sorry affair now, two years after the breach was announced? Because the saddest part is that the industry hasn’t learned from it.