Many hospitality companies are struggling with the question of how much to spend on cybersecurity especially in the context of revenue losses related to the pandemic. The challenge is that the risk of cyberattacks is rapidly escalating. There are several drivers of this alarming trend. First, ransomware is growing in severity both in the scope and the scale of attacks as well as the amount of the ransom demand. Next is the increase in remote work during the global pandemic and the rush to facilitate at home working. And finally, small companies are increasingly targeted because they are “easy” victims and typically more vulnerable.
As you might expect, the cost of cybercrime increased more than 50% from 2019 through 2020. According to a report by McAfee¹, the global cost is estimated to be more than $1 trillion and monetary losses are estimated at $945 billion. Examples of hidden or intangible costs that are difficult to measure include system downtime, reduced efficiency, brand damage and loss of trust. Expenses that are direct and easier to measure are consultant services, legal fees and cyber risk insurance premiums. Below is a chart published in the McAfee report that illustrates this trend.
This article talks about Mews, a start-up company, receiving a huge investment after there showing of "the first property management systems built for the internet era." Basically, a system that keeps track of all the hotel's check-in, check-outs, and transactions, this is an important system for those hotels who intend to keep up with the ever-changing digital age that we are in. This article focuses on the landscape of many of these types of tech groups who are all competing as well as the growth of this tech company and how they came up with this idea. Though with all new technology, there could be a potential drawback of data hackers mining for information. Thus, it is up to this group to prevent these problems while rolling out their new technology.
