Ian Taylor


Travel ‘top target’ for cybercriminals 900


DNS has identified almost


Travel is among the top-10 sectors targeted by cybercriminals using brand names to scam consumers. That is according to a study


by the DNS Research Federation, a not-for-profit digital analytics platform that works alongside the Global Anti-Scam Alliance and is finalising a report – due in October – on brands and cybercrime. Its research ranks travel and holiday


brands as the ninth most-targeted sector, with Airbnb, Booking.com and Emirates described as “super-targets” because they are among the six most-targeted brands across all sectors. Hospitality and leisure was eighth.


900 fake travel and holiday brand URLs in the past 12 months, each involving “thousands or tens of thousands of victims”, according to Lucien Taylor, the firm’s co-founder and chief security officer. “Scammers are building websites


and fake IDs at an industrial level and using chatbots or mass SMS messaging to engage victims,” he said. “Our data is indicative but


comes from quality threat intelligence and data providers.” A typical scam could involve


a consumer receiving an email appearing to be from a company they just made a booking with. Taylor warned: “This is beyond the capacity


Dame Kelly inspires at Travel Weekly Rising Stars lunch


Travel Weekly reporters


Double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes was the guest speaker at the first Travel Weekly Inspiring Women Rising Stars Lunch in London last week. The event was the latest


addition to the Travel Weekly Inspiring Women portfolio, which has featured lunches over the past three years with a range of speakers from outside the industry. The first Inspiring Women Retreat


is also planned for late November, with senior female executives to be hosted by Travel Weekly and a range of partners in Greece. The inaugural Rising Stars


4 26 SEPTEMBER 2024


Lunch saw 30 senior executives from across all sectors of the industry invited to attend along with a rising star from their organisation. The event was hosted by Hyatt


at the Hyatt Recency London – The Churchill hotel, and was supported by Celebrity Cruises, Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic. Dame Kelly Holmes appeared


courtesy of Avis and took part in a Q&A moderated by Travel Weekly editor-in-chief Lucy Huxley after addressing guests. In addition to talking about


her experiences during an athletics career which saw her crowned both 800m and 1500m champion at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Holmes


Number of fake travel brand URLs identified by DNS in past year


of most brands’ cyberprotection.” He noted “the scammers are really


good at sharing things” but described the level of data sharing by companies to combat fraud as “appalling”. Fellow DNS co-founder Emily


Taylor suggested “a lot of brands don’t share [details of] attacks [and] 60% of people don’t report online crime”. “Customers are being scammed,”


she said. “They’re embarrassed and blame the brand, and the brands are damaged. This is one of the biggest pains of digitisation.” YouGov consumer research for


DNS suggests UK adults receive on average 240 scam emails or texts a year. One in three report scams involving familiar brands. DNS reports 11% of UK adults


admit falling for an online scam, losing £1,169 each on average. It wants to turn its cyberfraud data into “a global resource” for business. Taylor said: “We’re talking to


some of the biggest platforms, but cybercrime is going up and impacting every sector and we need better signals faster.”


Dame Kelly (centre, back row) with Rising Stars


R I S I N G S TA R S


spoke about her personal life and challenges. She also told


attendees about the creation of the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, which was founded in 2008 and supports retired athletes who use their skills and experience to transform the lives of disadvantaged young people through mentoring programmes. Huxley said: “Our Travel Weekly


Inspiring Women Lunches have become a fantastic way to bring together and support many of the industry’s leading female executives


and we are delighted that the portfolio has now extended


with the addition of the Rising Stars event and our Retreat in Greece later this autumn. “Following on from a hugely


successful Paris Olympics, I could not have imagined a better choice of speaker for our first Rising Stars lunch than Dame Kelly, who had so many


words of wisdom for all our guests.” i Look out for full photo coverage of the inaugural Travel Weekly Rising Stars Lunch in next week’s T


ravel Weekly travelweekly.co.uk


PICTURE: Sarah Lucy Brown


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