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Your Hotel's Internet Network May Be Putting You At Risk For Data Theft

October 2, 2008 at 2:05 PM | 1 Comment

Oh, good. We could go on for days about how crucial we feel free, consistent Internet connections at our hotels to be -- and how much it sucks when there is no Internet connection at all -- but now maybe we might be a little bit more hesitant to use said free, consistent Internet connections. Well, a little more hesitant to send our top-secret, insider-y earthshattering hotel gossip over those networks, anyway.

A new study out of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration (this editor's alma mater, holla back!) found, after an analysis of 46 hotels and a survey of 147 hotels, that a majority of properties do not use all available tools to maintain network security.

Their survey found that about 20 percent of the 147 hotels surveyed still use simple hub-type systems, which are most vulnerable to hacking. In the first-hand analysis, the study tested the networks of 46 hotels, often without actually being guests of the hotel.

Oh, great. You can check out a full version of the report here. Til then, we'll make sure we use secure-for-sure connections to send each other our Jason Pomeranc gossip.