Hoteliers warned on organised crime threat
Hoteliers are being warned against the increasing threat of fraud from organised criminals.
Speaking at the Master Innholders' 21st Annual Hotel General Managers' Conference at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, London, this morning, Bob Dulieu, managing director of security specialists Capcon, and formerly an investigator with the Metropolitan Police Service, said: "There are recruitment drives going on in most European cities currently.
"Companies that are capital-rich and asset-rich are being targeted by gangs - they are putting people into hotels to get access to your databases.
"It's not a case of a hacker sitting in a dark room trying to hack into your database, they are putting staff into your hotel to do it."
Dulieu, who was speaking during a panel discussing on risk management at the conference, which was attended by 450 hoteliers, also highlighted to delegates the risk of staff manipulating EPOS systems.
"Believe me, some bad members of staff will be sitting there working out how to manipulate the EPOS system to get cash out of the business.
He encouraged hoteliers to minimise the opportunities for this by making sure staff were well vetted at all levels.
"Some senior members of staff have access to everyone's passwords. You need to make sure the communication channels are open so that if a junior member of staff has a concern about a colleague, they can speak to you about it."
