The most recent data breach at Omni Hotels & Resorts didn’t just injure guests, it insulted them, too, because it wasn’t the first time Omni was a target. It happened eight years ago and now it was allowed to happen again. That’s bad business.

The compromised data included customer names, email addresses, mailing addresses, and Select Guest Loyalty program information. The hackers who took credit said they took seven years of guest data and asked for $3.5 million to give it back.

That’s a crime, of course, but it is also criminal to slow-walk security. To paraphrase what is often said of national security, the price of data security is persistent vigilance. Nowhere is that truer than in the hospitality industry which is marked by companies that include a mix of older and newer properties, leading to inconsistent security measures across different locations.

The risks and the importance of robust cybersecurity measures within the hospitality industry ought to be clear. Hotel chains should be continuously updating and strengthening their security protocols to protect against evolving cyber threats.

Hotels are a common target for malware attacks and other forms of cybercrime due to a well-known but often unaddressed set of realities. The data collected is valuable and personal and most IT systems are complex, layered with technology from different generations, granting access to a host of third-parties and networks stretching from central servers to customers’ hand-held devices.

Omni is not the only hotel company to suffer these consequences. They are merely the latest. 

In 2018, Marriott’s guest reservation database was breached, exposing the personal information of up to 500 million guests. That breach went undetected for four years 

In 2015, Hilton’s payment systems were compromised, resulting in the theft of credit card information from customers who stayed at its hotels over a 17-month period.

In 2017, Hyatt experienced breaches caused by malware in its point-of-sale systems, leading to the theft of customer payment card data.