Cyber Resilience: The invisible shield that protects hotel profits and reputation
The season is in full swing, peak occupancy. For investors and management boards of hotel chains, this is a time of financial harvest. We are proud to look at mobile applications, virtual keys, automated check-in and payment systems that increase RevPAR indicators and guest satisfaction.
However, from the perspective of C-level offices, this arms race has a dark side – with each digital convenience, the number of access points for cyberattack increases.
Cybersecurity has long ceased to be IT department jargon or a formal check-off for GDPR compliance. Today, it is the absolute foundation for maintaining business continuity and the key to protecting the market valuation of assets.
In a hotel environment, there is no margin for operational error. If the Property Management System (PMS) (1) fails, even a minor IT problem in a fraction of a second becomes paralysis at the reception desk, chaos in the restaurant and guest frustration, which affects the image on social media. The attacks on Motel One and the incident in the Omni Hotels & Resorts chain show the brutal truth: hackers do not only target credit card data and medical systems, but also affect our operational capabilities. Guests were unable to open their room doors or connect to the network. This is an alarm signal for every investor – a cyber attack is a direct blow to capital and trust.
Operational resistance on adjustable
Regulators finally noticed what the market had known for a long time. The regulations coming into force implementing the requirements of the NIS2 directive and the amendment to national regulations (UKSC) ruthlessly shift the burden of responsibility onto the shoulders of the management staff. Expert reports, such as EY analyses, leave no doubt: operational resilience is a strict legal requirement today. The challenge for the hospitality industry is primarily the extensive supply chain. An average hotel is a technological jigsaw of systems: locks, POS, air conditioning and hotel television, and each of these elements comes from a different supplier. This forces us to make a radical change in contracting suppliers and technology partners and in risk management.
Technological alliances as a method against cyberattacks
Building reliable cyber resilience requires strategic technological alliances and moving away from makeshift half-measures. Security must be implemented at the hardware level – in accordance with the cardinal principle of “security by design”. When a guest connects his private drive to the hotel TV and the staff in the corridor uses a company smartphone, these devices become our first front line in a split second. That is why today smart capital does not buy random equipment, but builds an integrated ecosystem in cooperation with trusted suppliers. By choosing a strategic partnership with a global leader such as Samsung – which comprehensively equips facilities with modern hotel television and mobile equipment for staff – the investor receives a ready-made protective shield.
Protection is natively integrated in each of these devices Samsung Knox. By offering multi-layer equipment insulation to rigorous military standards, it allows you to effectively and discreetly protect the most sensitive contact points. This solution prevents unauthorized interference by preventing hackers from using screens in rooms or employee terminals as a transfer point to the main PMS system. Such strict network segmentation and separation is explicitly recommended by the American institute NIST (The National Institute of Standards and Technology) in its security guide for hotels. From a business point of view, it is a highly profitable risk mitigation.
An investment in modern hotel industry is an investment in safe technologies. The role of capital is not only to thoughtlessly implement innovations, but to ensure that this complex digital organism remains fully resistant to shocks. Cybersecurity is the new insurance policy for today’s hotel business. It is our ability to provide uninterrupted services at the highest level, regardless of external circumstances. It’s time to stop treating security as an operational cost and start viewing it as a primary competitive advantage. An advantage that will save our image, guests and money in times of crisis.
(1) hotel key operations management system
