Distinguished Blog - Cyber Liability
Market insights and industry news.
Cyber Insurance Part of Business Continuity for Limited-Service, Franchise Hotels
Cybercriminals continue to attack the hospitality industry, becoming increasingly more sophisticated in their tactics. While high-profile incidents such as Marriott’s data breach earlier this year and MGM Resort’s data breach in 2019 that affected 10.6 million guests make headline news, limited-service and smaller franchise hotels are also the victims of bad actors, with data theft,…
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Digital Thieves Ramp Up Cyber Attacks as Businesses Go Remote
Hacking activity is up, with cybercriminals taking advantage of remote work vulnerabilities amid the COVID-19 crisis. There are approximately 85 million Americans working from home. In fact, researchers cite that activity against corporations in the United States more than doubled by some measures in March, with malware infections, phishing tactics ,and ransomware running rampant. That’s…
Unlocking the Growing Cyber Risks in the Hospitality Industry
No industry, including the hospitality sector, is untouched by the growing threat of cybercrime. According to a report by Accenture, organizations have seen security breaches and other cyber risks grow by 67% in the past five years alone.
Spotlight on Cyber Threats for Community Associations
In a recent article, “Data Defense,” published in Common Ground magazine, Pat Bruen, Product Manager for Distinguished’s Community Association Program, provides valuable insight on the various cyber threats HOAs, condo associations, co-ops and PUDs face. These community associations in their day-to-day operations handle and store confidential, personal identifiable information, such as homeowner names, addresses, bank…
Why Hotels Need Cyber Insurance, Coverage Not Available Under CGL
Having a separate Cyber insurance policy is vital to corporations that store any sort of customer data. Too often businesses mistakenly believe that their Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance will respond in the event of a data breach. This isn’t so as reflected by the latest case involving a Florida hotel group looking to its CGL policy…
Hotels Under Cyber Attack: Intercontinental Properties Hit by Credit Card Breach
The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which owns thousands of hotels worldwide, disclosed earlier this month that a credit card breach impacted at least a dozen of its properties. This is just the latest cyber attack that has hit some of the largest hotel and hospitality chains over the past years – from Kimpton Hotels to…
Ransomware Hackers Targeting Hospitality Sector
Imagine it’s check-in or check-out time at your hotel on a Saturday right before a holiday and the entire computer system is locked. Kaput. Smiles and sorrys aren’t doing the trick. The “server reboot to the rescue” doesn’t get business up-and-running. In fact, it turns out that your software has been attacked by ransomware—a nasty…
Cyber Attack Targets Olympic Athletes
If you listened to our interview with Gabriella Coleman, you know that cyber liability is of particular interest to us. That’s why today’s news about the cyber attack into the medical information of some of the top US Olympic athletes caught our eye immediately.
In the News: Hackers Hit HEI Hotels… Hard
According to Verizon’s 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report, the “Accommodations” industry topped the lists of number of security incidents and number of confirmed breaches with compromised data. One of the most recent victims was HEI Hotels & Resorts, an owner and manager of more than 50 high end hotel properties around the US. Franchisees are…
Cyber Security is All About People, Not Computers
January 27, 2015 was not a good day for the health insurance company Anthem. That morning a computer system administrator discovered that someone was using his security credentials to log into the company system. Over 80 million people had their names, social security numbers, and other sensitive information stolen in the breach. Not a good…
Are Your Hospitality Clients Covered For This Type Of Data Breach?
Hyatt reported earlier this year that the hotel chain suffered a massive data breach that affected about 250 of their hotels in 50 countries over the course of almost four months. Ouch. This Reuters article shows that this type of incident is becoming all too common in the hospitality industry, with Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.,…