Data & Security During Reopening + Monitoring Employee Health + Hotel COVID-19 Outbreak + Small Business Support + Risk Mitigation

The COVID-19 crisis and stay-at-home orders drastically changed corporate cybersecurity landscapes within an extremely compressed period of time. Almost every industry, including hospitality, rushed to introduce or increase the use of remote technology tools for work-related communication, including:

Video Conferencing
File Sharing
Virtual Desktops
Group Chat
VPN
Web-Based Applications and Tools

Cyber criminals wasted little time exploiting these rapidly-introduced changes, which produced cyber vulnerabilities from hasty or non-existent policies, training, risk assessments, and systems testing. Remote access controls, including safe login credentials and multi-factor authentication, have not been universally adopted by businesses, and fraudsters have successfully lied or hacked their way into home computers, stealing credentials and accessing sensitive work systems. Clever fraudsters have also capitalized on chaos and fears surrounding the virus outbreak, creating false narratives to entice individuals into clicking on links or attachments promising information on disease transmission, treatments and testing. PPP program frauds, stimulus program fraud and widespread unemployment compensation scams emerged. As a result, news sources have reported an increase in cybercrime ranging from social engineering/credential stealing to ransomware to business e-mail compromise.

When There’s a COVID-19 Outbreak at a Hotel, Who Gets to Know and When? Salish Lodge Becomes a Case Study for Seattle’s Hoteliers

October 15, 2020 via The Seattle Times

hen and who to inform about a COVID-19 outbreak is a delicate balancing act that must take into account the resources of county public health and the affected business, employee and customer privacy, the potential for spreading misinformation, community well-being, maintaining customer trust and numerous epidemiological concerns.