Cyberthreats in Travel Industry

Travel & Tourism is one industry which has reaped the benefits of digitalization tremendously. With seamless collaborations from hotels, transport facilities as well as payment gateways, travelling to your intended location has probably never been easier. Ranging from a vacation, casual outing or business trips, travel platforms can save you a lot of money and time by bringing all the relevant information to the consumer under one roof. This saves a lot of time as compared to doing it manually. This has also ensured that the travel industry takes the second spot as the fastest growing industry in the world.

Technology however is a double- edged sword and as business scales more towards digitalization to better align with their business objectives, the more they are exposing themselves to various cyberthreats & attacks. This ease of access doesn’t come without total absence of risks. Now as most of the consumer data has moved to the cloud in the form of credit cards, personal or other information, & use prescriptive or predictive models to support real-time decision making, their rich data becomes a valuable asset. Thus making it a primary target for hackers.

Travel and Tourism industry therefore needs to employ end - to - end security, utilizing and leveraging the latest cybersecurity techniques and AI onboarding solutions to effectively & proactively combat these risks.

How can travellers mitigate cyber risk?

• Lock your phone or turn it off while at airport security.
• Do not access any sensitive information / data while travelling.
• Disable bluetooth and wifi from your laptops, mobiles, tablets, etc. while travelling.
• Create a Wi-Fi hotspot via your smartphone and use a Virtual Private Network to encrypt your data, even if it makes your connection slower.
• Do not use telephones, video conferencing equipment or microphones in a public domain. Assume that they are compromised.
• Keep your electronic devices always under your surveillance.
• Ideally use battery powered chargers to charge your devices.
• If left with no alternative and have to charge with a USB then switch off power before plugging in the device.
• Do not borrow or lend your devices to any third party / strangers.
• Do not download any software onto your device and get a check done by the IT team post your trip.
• Devices screened as part of border control may be compromised.