Hotel Data Breaches Are Getting Worse. Here’s Why.

Glenn: [00:00:00] Everybody is your hospitality friend Glen here. I’m really excited that you could join us today. I got my new friend over here, Matthew Bright. He’s SVP and Head of IT with Davidson Hospitality. And check out all my interviews with them. They’re great people. But first we talked to him. Glenn: I want to thank my friends over at Unifocus. Unifocus, Workforce Management Redefined. Please check them out unifocus.com. So I made a promise to him and he made a promise to me. We’re not going to talk about AI in this conversation. I’m excited. We’ll try to. I’m excited about that. We want to talk about security, compliance, all of that kind of stuff. One of another major casino company just had a you know, had a data breach over there. We only hear about these major companies that get data breaches. Hotel companies are having problems. How are you handling this issue? Thinking about it so you don’t become a headline?

Matthew: [00:00:48] Yeah, absolutely. And I think I we made the promise, but I have to mention AI, even when you’re talking about security.

Glenn: [00:00:53] Because only 54 seconds in, I know, right, because it is.

Matthew: [00:00:57] Making security harder now it’s much easier and more accessible for bad actors to, to use AI, right? You know, previously phishing emails, you would be riddled with typos and things like that, where it was very easy to tell what they were, and now they could just run it through a model and it’s incredibly easy. And then, you know, new tools like Claude coming out with the new system that’s even locked down, people can’t get access to it because it’s so such a powerful tool for hacking. Right? So yeah, I think the security landscape is getting more interesting in that regard. And then also with all of these large hospitality companies getting hacked, it’s becoming more of a target. People are, are starting to understand.

Glenn: [00:01:30] So how do.

Glenn: [00:01:31] You, how do you move from then just playing defense to playing offense so that you don’t get hit?

Matthew: [00:01:36] Yeah, I think for the most part, we’re dealing with sophisticated tools, making sure that we have the right tools in place and that we’re blocking every possible entry point email obviously being a huge one. And, you know, just make sure our users are aware phishing and you know, social engineering attacks are more common than ever, right? Which gets complicated. I mean, like trying to authenticate our users at the help desk and make sure that we’re not resetting a password. Those things are very common and popular right now.

Glenn: [00:02:01] That’s yeah, that’s that’s interesting. I see people fall for like some of the most basic things really do. And it’s really hard to guard Every single path of entry. So how do you try to determine what’s most important, and what’s your philosophy for trying to get as much as you possibly can and stay ahead of those freaks out there?

Speaker 3: [00:02:20] Yeah, I think as long as you have the basics covered.

Matthew: [00:02:23] Like, you know, you’re getting, you have a, you have a strong network security, you’ve got strong security on the endpoint. The real focus right now for us is really on the user making sure that they’re aware because like you said, there’s, there’s amazing tools out there that can help block all of the different different attack vectors. But the users are this is susceptible as ever.

Glenn: [00:02:40] Yeah. Matthew. I mean, it’s getting it’s getting tough. You earlier you were talking about with, you know, the models, you’ve had the language in there that just is a lot more legible and stuff. I will tell you, there are certain things out there I know or I know are fake. I’m smarter than that. And I still sit there.

Speaker 3: [00:02:56] I’m still I’m confused.

Glenn: [00:02:57] I still do the old school solution of checking what the actual email address is and not what it says on my screen. And that usually.

Speaker 3: [00:03:04] Helps. That’s a little helpful.

Glenn: [00:03:05] But it’s random letters and numbers@gmail.com or something like that. I know it’s bomb, so don’t click on those.

Matthew: [00:03:10] Yeah, exactly. Don’t click the link. So what.

Glenn: [00:03:12] What kind of advice are you giving your team members in order to minimize potential for problems for you to have to get involved.

Matthew: [00:03:19] Yeah. I mean, really, it’s, it’s just for the most part, awareness, making sure all of our users are aware of the very sophisticated ways that a threat actors are trying to get into our systems. Cool.

Glenn: [00:03:29] What are you most excited about technology going forward in general?

Matthew: [00:03:32] Oh, without saying AI, you can say AI. That’s okay. I mean, I think there is some really cool stuff.

Glenn: [00:03:36] They just act out the letters of A and I or something like that.

Matthew: [00:03:40] So there is, I mean, just being here, seeing some really amazing things that people are doing. We saw a company earlier today that they’re from conception of their idea of what they wanted to do and still go live with thousands of employees was a seven week period. Like people were just able to pump things out so much faster and quicker. We’re innovating quicker. We’re getting new solutions. It’s exciting. But also that’s, you know, that’s insane.

Glenn: [00:04:02] It takes me longer to choose dinner sometimes. Exactly.

Matthew: [00:04:06] And we here we are building new companies and creating new applications in seven weeks.

Glenn: [00:04:09] All right. Give me give people out there a good piece of advice if you’re in the tech industry and how to keep up on stuff and sound like you know what you’re talking about.

Matthew: [00:04:16] Yeah. I think coming to events like this is great, really getting an understanding of what everybody is doing and what new systems are out there and applications that are being built. You know, and stay connected with your, your colleagues in the hospitality industry. We’re, we’re, we’re peers and working together to, to try to make the industry a better place.

Glenn: [00:04:31] That’s what I love about this business. You know, no matter what area the business is, is like me and the media people are all friends. You and all the IT people are all friends. And, you know, we’re all just trying to find the best solutions in order to be as successful as possible. And you, it seems, have successfully made it to the end of this video. Have anything else that you want to add?

Matthew: [00:04:49] All good, I appreciate it. Yeah man.

Glenn: [00:04:51] Thank you so much. Please check out our friends over at Unifor. Remember, Workforce Management redefined focus.com. I’m Glenn, he’s Matthew Bright, I should say. He’s Matthew Bright. I’m Jim Glenn. See you later. Bye.