Hotel Network Security

Cornell University School of Hotel Administration has released the results of a study on “Hotel Network Security“. The study concluded that US hotels are “generally ill-prepared” to protect their guests from network security issues.”

The study was conducted by Josh Ogle, Erica L. Wagner Ph.D. and Mark P. Talbert of Cornell University’s Center for Hospitality Research. The study of 147 US hotels found that there was a mixed picture with regard to the security of guest connections to the hotel wired and wireless networks.

Many business travelers use their hotel to continue working on the road, an increasingly common practice with the mobile workforce of today. However, as we’ve talked about in many instances on the Absolute blog, this places sensitive corporate information at risk.

According to the study, some hotels still rely on basic hub technology for their networks, which broadcasts every packet from every user to other users (no security). Others may have upgraded to more secure switches or routers, or may have encryption for Wi-Fi connections. Even with all of these upgrades, malicious lurkers can still intercept guest transmissions.

Highlights from the study:

• 20% of hotel networks use hub topologies
• 90% of hotels offered wireless access
• Out of the 39 hotels that had supplemental site visits, only 6 had wireless encryption
• 21% of hotels reported that malicious activity had taken place on their networks

The report outlines an example of best practice, with the case of the W Dallas Hotel – Victory. They have set up virtual local area networks (VLANs) for all hotel guests, inhibiting attackers from using the most common means of data intercept. The study goes so far as to lay fault on hotels that are not using available technology to protect hotel guests.

A number of recommendations were also made for hotel guests, including having an updated firewall, using the secure socket layer (SSL) protocol for transactions, and using virtual private network (VPN) or SSL-based email.

Download link: Hotel Network Security: A Study of Computer Networks in U.S. Hotels [PDF] Author note: at the time of publishing, the PDF link was not working well.

Via GCN ; Image: Microsoft Clipart