NEWS
GOLDEN TICKET: Riviera Travel has hosted its largest-ever fam trip, taking 30 top-performing agents on an 11-day tour of Sri Lanka. Agents earned a place by being among the first to complete training modules on the operator’s new Riviera Explorer e-learning platform or by demonstrating “strong engagement” with the brand. Tour highlights included visits to the Golden Temple of Dambulla, the sacred city of Kandy, Sigiriya Rock Fortress (pictured) and the historic Galle Fort, as well as two days relaxing on beaches and experiences in the Elephant Transit Home, Yala National Park and Nuwara Eliya tea-growing region. Riviera Travel’s Claire Hills, Alex Davies and Belle Whitehurst hosted attendees from agencies including Hays Travel, Silver Travel Advisor, Travel Counsellors, Premier Travel and Not Just Travel.
Cyber experts warn travel sector faces heightened risk in summer
Ian Taylor
The recent spate of cyberattacks on UK retailers has led cyber experts to warn of a heightened risk to travel companies and consumers as the summer approaches. Emily Taylor, co-founder of
Oxford Information Labs (Oxil) and the DNS Research Federation and now part of the Global Information Exchange (GSE) on cyber threats, said: “We see a huge uptick in travel threats in May to July.” She noted hackers and
as was Harrods, and this month a supermarket supplier was attacked. Taylor identified travel as among
the 10 sectors most-targeted by cybercriminals last year, with Airbnb,
Booking.com and Emirates among the six most-targeted brands across all sectors (Travel Weekly, September 12). Oxil and DNS Research
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scammers “tend to get their hooks into one brand and then go across a sector” and warned: “So many different businesses are involved in travel. There is no reason to think it won’t be affected.” Marks & Spencer was hit by a
major cyberattack in April which continues to disrupt its business. The Co-op was subsequently targeted,
travelweekly.co.uk
partnered with Google and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance to launch the Global Information Exchange as a ‘clearing house’ for cyber threats last October. The exchange has
already logged 230 million
‘threats’, according to Taylor, who reported “thousands and thousands of attacks on travel companies just in the last 14 days”. Attacks range from fake links
in WhatsApp messages to false websites and fake businesses, malware, phishing, ‘cloaking’ (fake content) and spam.
She noted research suggests
consumers feel reassured by well-known brand names and said: “Impersonating organisations is often the way scammers go in, deploying brands people recognise.” Taylor added: “Domains and
links involved in fraud have a life of four to six hours. But time spent dealing with these runs into days, weeks and months. “Rapid response is part of the
toolkit. We pull this information together to enable players to take action. We hope to break the cycle of cybercrime just increasing.” Her co-founder Lucien Taylor
said: “It is clear local police forces are overwhelmed and have no tools to deal with online scams. We’re trying to prevent fraud happening.” Barry Gooch, chair of Prevention
of Fraud in Travel, said: “There are lots of ways of committing fraud in travel. If this helps stop some fraud, it will be helpful.”
He added: “There is a calendar of
when different types of fraud occur. It depends on the type of fraud. But we only see what is visible.” Emily Taylor suggested there
has not been sufficient sharing of information up to now “because of misunderstandings about what data protection means”. She said: “Privacy laws don’t prevent sharing data on cybersecurity.” The UK Information
Commissioner’s Office advice to businesses states: “The UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 do not prevent you from sharing personal information where appropriate . . . to support scam and fraud mitigation.” The GSE is a non-profit
organisation, and Taylor said: “We would welcome travel sector partners to use the threat intelligence. They can inform themselves of the threat landscape for their brand and share data they have on scams.” More information:
GSE.org.
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PICTURE: Riviera Travel
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