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Check out what’s coming to the Crowne Plaza, InterContinental, and Holiday Inn hotels — free WiFi — and you don’t even need a room key to hop online! But is it safe? And what can you do to protect your online security? Click to read the article and find out more. Read More
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emailThe 3 Riskiest Online Mistakes Travelers Make Every Holiday Season
Posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2012 by Elaine Rigoli
Skim any travel website this holiday season and you’re bound to find an article or two about online security and traveling. The articles certainly raise awareness of the precarious security situation while in airports and hotels, but they also generally fall short in a few ways.
Read more to learn three tips that supplement any on-the-road security plan to safeguard your sensitive personal information and avoid having your identity (or credit card number) stolen this month. Read More
CNN Misses the Mark in Reporting of Personal VPNS, Travel, Cyber-Crime
Posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 by Elaine Rigoli
Using a personal virtual private network is the only way to guard your privacy at a public WiFi hotspot, yet CNN missed a significant opportunity to point out this simple fact in its recent reporting on travel-related cyber-crime.
Other mainstream media — such as The Huffington Post, The New York Times, and the Chicago Sun-Times (in their words: “Well, why are you sending data in clear text over open networks, anyway? You should never ever do that”) — have heartily endorsed the use of a personal VPN like Private WiFi.
Yet in its recent post, CNN acknowledged that the best approach for business travelers when using public WiFi is to remotely log into their employers’ VPN. Read More
FBI: Beware Of Malware Installed Via Hotel Networks
Posted on Friday, May 11th, 2012 by Elaine Rigoli
Forbes featured an in-depth article this week about the risks inherent in hotel wireless networks. It highlights the importance of using a personal virtual private network (VPN).
The article includes new warnings from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center — for example, tips such as “download software updates direct from the vendor’s website” — but the Forbes writer opines further and offers the following words of advice:
In addition to this, I would recommend that all important information — including, but not limited to, emails, documents, IMs and web logins — is sent over secure HTTP or a VPN.
Free WiFi At Disney Hotels, But Less-Than-Magical Online Privacy Issues Remain
Posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 by Elaine Rigoli
When Disney executives polled more than 10,000 hotel guests about which amenities they would most like to see added to all Disney hotels, free WiFi connectivity topped guests’ wishlists.
So crews rewired the resort’s hotels — including the cabins in Disney’s Fort Wilderness campground — and completed the work last month. While it may seem like a magical perk to hotel guests, real privacy dangers lurk in the background. Read More
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Are Your Shared Files At Risk on a Hotel Wifi Network?
Posted on Monday, November 21st, 2011 by Kent Lawson
One of the things we’re always told to do when using public wifi in a hotel (or any other place) is to turn off file sharing. Okay, that sounds like a smart thing to do, but what exactly does it entail? And can someone on the same wifi network we are on actually access our files? Click the headline above to find out what you need to do before your next hotel stay! Read More
Survey: Business Travelers at Increased Risk of Hotel Hacking, Identity Theft
Posted on Tuesday, September 27th, 2011 by Elaine Rigoli
A report from British insurance company Willis Group Holdings says business travelers who book hotel rooms online are putting themselves at risk. The survey found that insurance claims for data theft worldwide jumped 56% last year, with a bigger number of those attacks targeting the hospitality industry. In fact, 38% of all cyber attacks were aimed at hotels, resorts, and tour companies. Click the headline above to read more. Read More
Hotel Guests More Likely to Be Credit Card Hacking Victims
Posted on Thursday, August 11th, 2011 by Elaine Rigoli
Did you know that 38% of all credit-card hacking involves hotels? CreditDonkey.com, a credit-card comparison site, says this figure outnumbers the incidents of credit card fraud at restaurants/bars (13%), retail stores (14.2%), and the financial sector (19%). In just one example from its new report, CreditDonkey shows how pervasive — and expensive — the problem is for hotel guests. In one 3-month-long hacking incident, credit card information was stolen from 700 hotel guests, resulting in losses averaging from $2,000 to $3,000 per credit card account. Charles Tran, founder of CreditDonkey, says it’s “foolish” to think our electronic data is safe. Click above to read the entire article — and see the CreditDonkey infographic that may keep you from enjoying a restful night’s sleep in a hotel ever again. Read More
Study Finds Hotel Computers Loaded With Guests’ Personal Information
Posted on Friday, June 3rd, 2011 by Elaine Rigoli
A local news station in New Orleans researched area hotels and discovered that 12 hotels offered guests the use of public computers that contained people’s names, addresses, and other sensitive information about the user. Do hotels have a duty to erase the hard drive on a daily or weekly basis to ensure no temporary files are saved on that computer? “If somebody wants to open up a new credit card and in this day and age of identity theft, having that kind of information out there is real frightening,” according to an attorney quoted in this article. Read More
Credit Fraud: Computer Database Hacked At California Resort
Posted on Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
The Sacramento Bee reports that the computer network at Eagle Ridge Resort & Spa in California was invaded by hackers, exposing hotel guests’ credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, and card verification codes. The hotel has said other personal information, such as names, addresses, or Social Security numbers, was not obtained by the hacker. While the hotel works with law enforcement to investigate the crime, it recommends that past guests check their card statements and other account information carefully.