In the News
Yet another data breach affects the hotel industry. In Radisson Hotel Group Spills Customer Data, Phil Muncaster at Info-Security News discusses a recent data breach at Radisson Hotels. Muncaster explains that the breach did not expose financially important information, but it did expose personal information such as addresses and email addresses of Loyalty Members.
Our Take
Data breaches in any form of severity can reduce customer trust in a company. Customer’s continuously put more of their personal information into online accounts expecting their information to be stored securely, but so many security breaches make this difficult to believe. Specifically, with instances such as with Radisson Hotels, the customers whose data was exposed were those of Loyalty Members meaning that these customers opted into a program designed to benefit the consumer with added benefits—not with data breaches. While companies need to practice safe data storage methods and efficiently convey mistakes along with solutions in a timely fashion, consumers need to advocate for their data security and be knowledgeable on what such measure entail.
Recommendations
How can you protect your personal information when creating and using online accounts?
- Understand the risks of putting your personal information into the world, and only share what you have to
- Don’t reuse your account passwords, and take advantage of multi-factor authentication where possible
- Limit the number of accounts that have access to your personal financial information
- Stay up to date on the news covering recent breaches to see if you may have been affected