INDUSTRY FACT FILE · HOSPITALITY, TRAVEL & TOURISM

Cybersecurity FAQs for Hospitality, Travel and Tourism

Forty frequently asked questions and answers in five categories, written for Boards, CISOs, property and revenue leaders, finance and payments, loyalty and marketing, legal, privacy and procurement teams.

In this document 1.  Category 1: Cyber risk, governance and strategy 2.  Category 2: Regulation, payments and compliance 3.  Category 3: Bookings, OTAs, payments and loyalty 4.  Category 4: Properties, Wi-Fi, SOC and recovery 5.  Category 5: Guest data, vendors and brand

Audience: Boards, MDs, CEOs, owners and CISOs

Q1. Why are hotels and travel companies cyber targets?

They hold passports, cards and travel plans for millions of guests, stop visibly when systems fail, run loyalty points that convert to cash and operate through staff and vendors spread across many properties—attracting criminals, fraudsters and state actors alike.

Q2. Which incidents should the Board know about?

Marriott's Starwood breach exposed about 339 million records and drew an £18.4 million ICO fine and a US$52 million US settlement; Scattered Spider disrupted MGM Resorts and Caesars in 2023; Sabre, Omni Hotels and Otelier show how vendors and platforms spread exposure across brands.

Q3. What are the biggest risks for an Indian hospitality or travel company?

Guest data breaches through PMS and vendors, ransomware halting check-in and PoS, OTA extranet account takeover that defrauds guests, payment card theft, loyalty fraud and weak monitoring across properties.

Q4. Who should own cybersecurity across brands, owners and operators?

The operator's CISO should set standards and monitor; owners and franchisees must fund and comply at property level; contracts should define responsibilities, evidence and breach notification.

Q5. What should the Board review each quarter?

Guest data inventory and vendor exposure, extranet and loyalty fraud indicators, PCI DSS status, test results for booking platforms, incidents, audit findings, SOC coverage and exercise outcomes.

Q6. How should we prioritise investment?

Map guest data, enforce MFA on distribution and loyalty accounts, segment and back up property systems, test booking and payment flows, secure Wi-Fi, hold vendors to account and build monitoring—in that order.

Q7. How does cybersecurity affect brand and owner relationships?

Brands audit owners against security standards and owners expect brands' shared platforms to be secure; evidence of controls is now part of management contracts and franchise renewals.

Q8. How can Codec Networks help?

Codec Networks provides DPDP programmes for guest data, booking and payment testing, PCI DSS readiness, Wi-Fi testing, vendor assurance, 24x7 SOC with brand monitoring and crisis exercises with properties and vendors.

Audience: Compliance, finance, privacy, company secretarial and CISO offices

Q9. Do CERT-In Directions apply to us?

Yes. Cyber incidents must be reported within six hours and ICT logs kept for 180 days in India. CERT-In's 2025 audit guidelines expect independent audits covering applications and cloud.

Q10. How does DPDP affect a hotel or travel company?

Guest identity, contact, stay, loyalty, CCTV and employee data require notices, safeguards, retention limits and breach intimation; most obligations under the DPDP Rules take effect in May 2027, and vendors processing the data need contracts.

Q11. What did RBI tokenisation change?

Since 1 October 2022 merchants and payment aggregators may not store card numbers; card-on-file tokens replace them, which reduces PCI scope but moves risk to token and gateway integrations.

Q12. Does PCI DSS still apply after tokenisation?

Yes. PCI DSS v4.0.1 applies wherever card data is captured or transmitted—booking engines, front desks, PoS and call centres—and acquirers and schemes expect validation appropriate to your volume.

Q13. What is Form C and why is it a security matter?

Accommodation providers report foreign guests to the Bureau of Immigration within 24 hours of arrival under the immigration law in force since September 2025; the passport and visa data collected must be stored, transmitted and retained securely.

Q14. Do GST changes have a cyber angle?

E-invoicing integrations and the September 2025 room-rate slabs run through PMS and finance systems whose integrity and availability matter for compliance.

Q15. What must listed hospitality and travel companies disclose?

Under SEBI's LODR Regulations, listed entities disclose cyber security incidents, breaches and loss of data in the quarterly corporate governance report.

Q16. Can Codec Networks audit us?

Yes. Codec Networks is CERT-In empanelled and performs IT and application audits, PCI DSS and ISO 27001 gap assessments, DPDP assessments and brand standard audits.

Audience: Revenue, distribution, e-commerce, finance and loyalty teams

Q17. How do we stop extranet phishing that targets our guests?

Enforce MFA and least privilege on every OTA and channel manager account, train reservations teams on OTA-themed phishing, monitor logins and guest messaging and keep a takedown and guest-communication playbook ready.

Q18. What should we test before a booking engine or app release?

Authentication and authorisation, payment integration, rate and availability logic, bot resistance under load, refund and cancellation flows and the APIs behind the app.

Q19. How do we reduce PCI DSS scope?

Use tokenisation and hosted payment pages, keep card capture out of the PMS and call recordings, segment PoS networks and document the resulting scope with your acquirer.

Q20. How do we protect loyalty programmes?

Apply bot management, rate limiting and MFA to logins, detect redemption anomalies, add step-up verification for high-value redemptions and test partner redemption APIs.

Q21. How do we handle refund and chargeback fraud?

Review cancellation and refund controls, monitor patterns by account and card, and align evidence capture with scheme dispute rules.

Q22. How should tour operators protect deposits and traveller documents?

Verify bank-detail changes by call-back, use payment links from trusted platforms, encrypt and limit access to passport copies and set retention limits.

Q23. What about delivery aggregators and PoS integrations?

Review integration security and credentials, segment PoS networks, patch terminals and monitor for card-scraping malware.

Q24. How do we secure digital keys and mobile check-in?

Test the app and key provisioning APIs, review lock system vendors and isolate key and building networks from guest and office networks.

Audience: Property management, IT, SOC and incident response teams

Q25. How should a property network be segmented?

Separate guest Wi-Fi, conference networks, PoS, PMS, keys, building systems and office IT, with client isolation on guest networks and controlled vendor access.

Q26. How do we secure guest and conference Wi-Fi?

Test wireless security before major events, enable client isolation, harden captive portals and controllers, keep property systems unreachable from guest networks and monitor during events.

Q27. Do hospitality companies need a SOC?

Yes. Monitoring properties, platforms, cloud, extranets and vendor access 24x7 is essential for early detection, containment and six-hour reporting across many sites.

Q28. What should the SOC monitor?

Property and cloud infrastructure, PMS and vendor access, extranet and loyalty logins, payment and booking anomalies, identity events and brand abuse signals.

Q29. What should incident playbooks include?

Containment, manual check-in and billing, CERT-In reporting, DPDP intimation when in force, acquirer and scheme notification, brand, owner and OTA notification and guest communication.

Q30. How should backups be designed?

Immutable or offline backups of PMS interfaces, PoS, key systems, booking platforms and finance systems with regular restore tests and documented manual procedures.

Q31. How quickly can a hotel recover from ransomware?

With segmented networks, tested backups and manual playbooks, days; without them, weeks of paper operations and lost bookings, as public incidents show.

Q32. When should forensics be engaged?

As soon as ransomware, card compromise or guest data theft is suspected, with investigators who can preserve evidence and support regulators, schemes and insurers.

Audience: Privacy, legal, procurement, marketing and brand teams

Q33. Which guest data do we hold and where?

Identity documents and contact details from check-in and Form C, card tokens, stay and spend histories, loyalty profiles, CCTV and Wi-Fi logs across PMS, CRS, OTAs, payment providers and marketing clouds—map it before DPDP arrives.

Q34. How long should we keep passport copies?

Only as long as immigration reporting and legal requirements demand; define retention limits, store copies encrypted with restricted access and delete on schedule.

Q35. How should we assess PMS, channel and payment vendors?

Tier them by data held and operational criticality, assess security and incident history, add breach notification, audit and recovery clauses and review their access to your systems.

Q36. What do brand and owner standards require?

Typically network segmentation, PCI DSS compliance, endpoint protection, access control, incident reporting and periodic evidence—map them to one control set and reuse the evidence.

Q37. How do we deal with fake booking sites and impersonation?

Monitor look-alike domains, marketplaces and social platforms, coordinate takedowns, warn guests through official channels and report fraud to platforms and police.

Q38. How do we train staff across properties?

Run phishing and OTA-fraud simulations for reservations and finance teams, data handling training for front office and secure-operations training for property IT.

Q39. What should a guest data breach response include?

Containment, forensic analysis, CERT-In reporting, DPDP intimation when in force, scheme and OTA notification, honest guest communication and remediation.

Q40. How can we start with Codec Networks?

Begin with a scoping call on your properties, platforms, vendors and guest data flows; Codec Networks will propose a practical assessment and assurance plan.

Contact Codec Networks Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi: 507, 5th Floor, New Delhi House, Barakhamba Road, Connaught Place, New Delhi – 110001 Gurugram: 707, 7th Floor, Silverton Tower, Golf Course Extension Road, Sector 50, Gurugram – 122018, Haryana Landline: 011 430 496 96 | 011 437 522 99   Mobile: +91 99716 76124 | +91 88007 88220 | +91 88003 31124 Email: mktg@codecnetworks.com   Web: www.codecnetworks.com

Note: These FAQs provide general guidance as of October 2026 and do not constitute legal, tax or regulatory advice. Confirm obligations against the official instruments applicable to your business, payment role and contracts.