The impact of cyber attacks are not limited to only IT systems anymore. Recently, Omni Hotels & Resorts were forced to shut down its operations when they became victims of a cyber attack. The Texas-based hotel chain runs 50 upscale hotels and resorts across North America, with more than 23,000 rooms. It has roughly around 14,000 employees. On March 29th, the organization began responding to a cyber attack, forcing them to shut down their systems to protect their customers and their privacy.
The attack could have occurred through their unsecured CCTV cameras in the lobby, smart lights in the rooms, or even automated luggage trolleys. These devices are all interconnected to one network making it easy for the hackers to gain unauthorized access to their IT systems. The hotel group stated that it might have been a ransomware attack, but no known cybercrime group has taken credit for it yet.
The hotel took most of their systems offline when they realized that they were under attack. Customers who were staying at the hotel and resort during this incident were made to check-in on paper. They were unable to pay with credit cards and their room keys stopped working.
While the management of Omni shut down their systems to protect their customers' data and privacy, several other disruptions still occurred that could have been avoided if they had the right cybersecurity measures in place.
Let’s break this down below.
Shutting down their systems was a quick response to the cyber attack. But by taking their systems offline, Omni hotels lost customers who were trying to book rooms. These numbers could be large, and several people may have ended up booking a different hotel just because they couldn’t access the website of Omni Hotels & Resorts.
Apart from losing business from having an unavailable website, several customers who considered Omni hotels safe, were now skeptical to book their services. A cyber attack is taken seriously by customers as there is a huge risk to their data and privacy. This cyber incident may have led to a loss of reputation and made customers wary of the hotel group. They might also share this opinion with their social circle leading to more people staying away from this company.
While shutting down systems in the event of an attack was the right move, customers who were staying at the hotel or resort during the incident had a subpar experience overall. Room keys not working, not being able to pay by card, and other such service disruptions resulted in the quality of service taking a hit. How many of these customers would actually go back to this place?
What Could Have Been
Organizations do not have control over cyber criminals attempting to attack their systems, infrastructure, devices, etc. But what they have control over is the security measures to prevent such attacks. In the event of such an attack, they have the control to set up measures that will instantly respond and remediate the attack.
MicroSec has solutions that will secure your organization's network and devices in connected buildings like hotels, warehouses, offices and other facilities. With these solutions, you won’t have to shut down your systems and take them offline during an attack, disrupting your operations and services as they are equipped to secure your organization’s network down to the device layer, the Edge, at level 0/1.
Source: https://www.securityweek.com/cyberattack-causes-disruptions-at-omni-hotels/