An Austrian luxury hotel says it is ditching electronic room cards for old-fashioned locks and keys after having its systems frozen by blackmail-hungry hackers. The Romantik Seehotel Jaegerwirt, in the Austrian Alps, said that one recent infection with ransom software resulted in the complete shutdown of hotel computers.
The husband and wife management team said they were forced to pay roughly 1,500 euros (nearly ,600) worth of electronic currency to restore their network. “When the hackers got the money, they unlocked the computers, making them all run as normal again,” hotel co-manager Christina Brandstaetter said.
Hotels can take a few simple steps to reduce the chances of a ransomware attack. These include maintaining a strong firewall and current anti-virus software on all computers used in hotel operations and keeping systems current with relevant software and firmware patches to help prevent infection, Fale said. Along with protecting physical access to the front-desk systems, hotels should limit logical access only to persons that need this access, such as the general manager and engineering lead. Plus, it’s smart to have programming cards and spare cards on hand, store them in a safe place, and keep them up to date via maintenance scheduling systems so that they do not expire.
“Guests can rest assured in the security of mobile locks, because this hack affected the system server that records the keys,” Aznar said. “This is something that is all too common with computers holding any type of system. Since this wasn’t an issue with the locks themselves, it reminds us how important it is to stay up-to-date with all computer systems.”
Regularly updating an operating system and installing the latest in computer system security patches is the recommended way to keep your systems protected. Implementing the latest in available technology solutions is always going to decrease the chances of having such events occur at your property.
