During the holiday season many of us will be visiting family and friends, or taking time to travel. Some of us will be staying in hotels. Like most, we will want to make sure we are “connected”. Hotels knowing this offer Wi-Fi services to their guests. Hotels may offer Wi-Fi service, but do they include Wi-Fi security?
Free Wi-Fi was recently rated the most important in-room hotel amenity, above a bathroom with shower and daily housekeeping. While Internet access may be a priority, lax security controls often jeopardize guest network users and create a risky proposition for global travelers wanting to stay connected. Our partner, WatchGuard, in a recent survey revealed that 71 percent of global hotels, restaurants and other hospitality organizations do not provide unique temporary user passwords for guest Wi-Fi networks, which could compromise corporate and guest network security.
The WatchGuard survey also found that 51 percent of global hospitality organizations do not monitor guest networks for suspect applications, malware or malicious activities; 62 percent do not monitor guest activity to limit bandwidth-intensive applications; and 48 percent do not use policy mapping or data visualization tools to monitor performance. This lapse of guest Internet and Wi-Fi network visibility and controls can have a significant impact on overall guest network performance and user experience on top of growing security risks.
Why you should be concerned? When you connect to a wireless network, you are connected with other users. This may be fine when it’s your home or office, but some hotels are not as strict as to whom uses their wireless networks. As such, guests with malicious intent, can try to access other computers on the wireless network. Even worse is users that are not even guests of the hotel can access the wireless network from outside the hotel to try to access computers on the wireless network.
A hotel that monitors guest traffic, has temporary user passwords for guests, and limits traffic will be much more secure. In turn, be a much more secure wireless network for you to use.
Feel free to contact us with any questions, comment or suggestions about this article.
Free wi-fi and security free
During the holiday season many of us will be visiting family and friends, or taking time to travel. Some of us will be staying in hotels. Like most, we will want to make sure we are “connected”. Hotels knowing this offer Wi-Fi services to their guests. Hotels may offer Wi-Fi service, but do they include Wi-Fi security?
Free Wi-Fi was recently rated the most important in-room hotel amenity, above a bathroom with shower and daily housekeeping. While Internet access may be a priority, lax security controls often jeopardize guest network users and create a risky proposition for global travelers wanting to stay connected. Our partner, WatchGuard, in a recent survey revealed that 71 percent of global hotels, restaurants and other hospitality organizations do not provide unique temporary user passwords for guest Wi-Fi networks, which could compromise corporate and guest network security.
The WatchGuard survey also found that 51 percent of global hospitality organizations do not monitor guest networks for suspect applications, malware or malicious activities; 62 percent do not monitor guest activity to limit bandwidth-intensive applications; and 48 percent do not use policy mapping or data visualization tools to monitor performance. This lapse of guest Internet and Wi-Fi network visibility and controls can have a significant impact on overall guest network performance and user experience on top of growing security risks.
Why you should be concerned? When you connect to a wireless network, you are connected with other users. This may be fine when it’s your home or office, but some hotels are not as strict as to whom uses their wireless networks. As such, guests with malicious intent, can try to access other computers on the wireless network. Even worse is users that are not even guests of the hotel can access the wireless network from outside the hotel to try to access computers on the wireless network.
A hotel that monitors guest traffic, has temporary user passwords for guests, and limits traffic will be much more secure. In turn, be a much more secure wireless network for you to use.
Feel free to contact us with any questions, comment or suggestions about this article.
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