Just days following Kay Pedersen’s hotel reservation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, via Booking.com, she received a troubling email. The email, poorly written in broken English, warned her of “malicious activities” within her account.
Subsequently, Kay and her husband, Steven, encountered issues. Steven noticed unauthorized reservations at different hotels, prompting them to report the fraudulent activity to Booking.com. In response, Booking.com cancelled all their bookings, including the one in Chiang Mai. Despite their immediate action, restoring their original reservation proved challenging. While Booking.com eventually reinstated the reservation, the new rate was more than double the original.
The Pedersens are not isolated cases. A recent surge in hacking incidents has targeted travellers. Criminals reportedly obtained Booking.com passwords through its internal messaging system. Loyalty program accounts and other online travel agencies have also been popular targets.
The susceptibility of travel accounts to attacks is attributed to the wealth of sensitive information they hold, including passports, driver’s licenses, and travel dates. Caroline McCaffery, CEO of ClearOPS, underscores the importance of safeguarding this information.
To mitigate the risk of hacking, travellers can employ several strategies:
[…]
Content was cut in order to protect the source.Please visit the source for the rest of the article.
This article has been indexed from CySecurity News – Latest Information Security and Hacking Incidents
Read the original article: