The cyber security threats to leisure businesses

For those in the hospitality industry, the threats to data security can be significant.

The storage of debit/credit card information is widespread among hotels and restaurants and these are accessed several times when guests use the restaurant, bar or leisure facilities. Another common feature in the industry is guest wi-fi which can offer hackers access to data by breaching unsecured networks.

This is an increasing annual trend in both cases, with average costs resulting from a breach also increasing.

Managers should provide staff with clear procedures for protecting customer data with policies reviewed on a regular basis to ensure they are current.

Leisure businesses should speak to their insurance providers to check their policy covers legal fees and advice and the costs of a communication specialist in case it is necessary to deal with the fallout of a data breach. It should also cover any fines or compensation from legal claims after customer data is hacked.