According to “Occupational Fraud 2022: A Report to the Nations” hospitality organizations lose an average of USD 55,000 per case due to internal fraud. High stakes lead to high risks, which could not be overlooked by a Turkish subsidiary of multinational hotel chain. Zecurion has happily accommodated the brand’s request to anonymize all names and places to meet corporate policy requirements.

Highlights

• The Client brand has properties in major urban centers, gateway cities and resorts. By now the chain has 401 open hotels with 110,178 open rooms, and 126 hotels in pipeline. 
• Turkish subsidiary is present in Istanbul (7 hotels), Ankara, Cappadocia, Bursa and Antalya.

Challenge

The Client company was looking for a comprehensive insider threat protection, that will prevent unwelcomed, unauthorized or illegal access to sensitive guest information or trade secrets. 

“The main goal of the hospitality industry is to deliver an excellent and safe customer experience. Hotels collect and analyze large amounts of sensitive customer data to optimize their offerings and to create customized experiences. However, these good intentions make hospitality businesses attractive to cybercriminals”, — says Ivan Starodubtsev, Regional Business Development Director, Zecurion.

• Employee turnover. The hospitality industry experiences extremely high turnover rates, that poses a serios cybersecurity threat for hotels. Leaving, employees can take sensitive data with them or retain access to hotel corporate systems and data.
• Human factor. An employee can steal sensitive data for personal gain or for further re-selling to a third party. They can as well intentionally cause harm with malicious intent (changing / deleting sensitive files). 
• Occupational fraud. Employees working with supply chain or goods and services vendors’ relations may be involved in kickback schemes. This often continues unnoticed for years.

Solution

The Client hotel chain was equipped with the latest software for 360° protection from insider threats – Zecurion Next Generation DLP 12.

Zecurion DLP includes unified employee profile section where all incidents / leakages and key user statistics are stored. Staff Control keeps track of working hours, logs employees’ actions at workplaces, and evaluates the efficiency, while User Behavior Analytics uses 15 indicators and emotional profiling to signal and prevent potential threat. Zecurion Discovery Module helps preparing and controlling sensitive data inventory. Traffic Control Module monitors and controls files movement across more than 100 services within and outside the corporate network to minimize the risk of intentional or inadvertent data loss.

Results

Zecurion provided continuous monitoring, risk assessment and access control. On top of that the adopted solution minimizes hotel chain’s cybersecurity workload with special Zecurion Investigation Module. The Module provides a comprehensive view of current tasks with all statuses, data on the investigation stage, executants and deadlines. The team can leave comments on the task, discuss progress and attach documents and incidents as proof.