BlockID for the Hospitality Industry:  Contact-free authentication to proof customers' ID and streamline their experience

Reservations systems are increasingly targeted...

The reservation systems of the biggest hotel chains represent a highly attractive target for cyber criminals, since they can contain hundreds of millions of customer records, including credit card and passport numbers.

Based on recent major data breaches that affected some of the biggest hospitality brands in the world, the modus operandi of cyber criminals is always the same and consists of compromising the identity of an employee, especially one with administrator privileges, to take full control of the account and steal data. 

Having said that, cyber criminals looking at selling hotels' customer data on the Dark Web are not the only ones interested in compromising a reservations system. The latest Marriott breaches have shed light on the motivations specific foreign intelligence agencies have to steal massive amounts of data on American government employees and intelligence officers. Marriott is indeed the top hotel provider for the U.S. government and military. The stolen passport numbers in particular were used to track their movements around the world. 

Finally, large hotel chains have systematically demonstrated low standards regarding data and transaction security, from storing customers’ data unencrypted in centralized systems to transacting via simple and easily hackable point of sale machines. Then adding weak monitoring of employees and vendors that interact with their booking platform becomes a recipe for disaster to happen again.

... And the customer loses trust in the brand.

While the hospitality industry remains the victim of criminal activities, the consumer remains the collateral victim of this criminality. Shouldn't a customer expect no less than his or her data to be stored securely upon booking a room online?  

Several studies have concluded that customers do care about data breaches and how companies manage them. In fact, if a breach is poorly managed, consumers are likely to lose trust, dissociate from the business, tell their network about the breach, and shop with a more secure competitor. For example, IDC found that 80 percent of consumers in developed nations will defect from a business if their information is compromised in a security breach.

Let's not forget that the magnitude of any data breach is far-reaching thanks to the Internet. A company’s widespread negative reputation specifically from a breach can damage their overall reputation more than they realize. This can ultimately impact their bottom line.

Lastly, Security Magazine reported that 52 percent of consumers would consider paying for the same products or services from a provider with better security

So, a data breach carries indirect losses caused by customers walking away from the company, and some of the largest hotel chains could ultimately see billions of dollars in lost revenue as a result of a breach.