Big Events & Big Data = Big ThreatsBig Events & Big Data = Big Threats

Large-scale events have been a recurring theme in the past year. The Summer Olympics in Paris came on the heels of major international soccer tournaments in North America and Europe. In the fall, Presidential campaigns criss-crossed the country, highlighted by their respective conventions in Milwaukee and Chicago.

The start of 2025 is no different. January brought a Presidential Inauguration to Washington, D.C. while February saw Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. Annual technology and pop culture touchstone South by Southwest in Austin, Texas will host north of 350,000 in March. Heck, even World Wrestling Entertainment’s annual “WrestleMania” promotion, scheduled this year for April in Las Vegas, brings nearly 150,000 attendees from around the world to its host city for the two-day event.

For the hospitality industry, these sprawling events can be both a boon and a burden. The upside is obvious: a return to the lucrative periods that preceded COVID and its months of recovery. But with these windfalls come the winds of security threats to the data of organizations and their guests.

A 2023 industry report from cybersecurity firm Trustwave stated that 31 percent of hospitality organizations suffered a data breach, with 89 percent of those organizations being hit more than once in a year.

Here are three things any hospitality vendor should consider when it comes to hosting large-scale, multifaceted events:

Security Begins at Home

When it comes to data or security breaches, a common misconception bred by both media and pop culture is that the majority of cyber threats are elaborate operations perpetrated by foreign agents with spy thriller aspirations. And while the odd James Bond-like plot can’t be discounted, the daily reality is actually more mundane.

In truth, the source of a compromise is more apt to come from a disgruntled employee, an ill-intentioned guest, or, just as likely, someone who has unwittingly jammed up the system because of their own infected technology.

In these cases, effective security is a hybrid of strong technology and human oversight. Monitoring and mitigation for security flaws and vulnerabilities are at the core, but just as important is ensuring that the property’s internal departments (e.g., guest services, personnel, human resources, and vendor management) are aligned and communicating.

A hotel’s technology infrastructure is the line of defense to troubleshoot any illicit activities before they become a threat. Furthermore, a property’s readiness to security threats must include proper training on new data collection methods and contactless service amenities.

We’re Only in the ABCs of AI

No technology has dominated the zeitgeist more than artificial intelligence and its potential to transform how we work and what we can produce.

In the hospitality industry, AI has just begun to assert its potential, with most property owners and operators finding its value in creating efficiencies in basic guest support and concierge services that free up staff to add value to the guest experience elsewhere. In the coming years, one should expect AI to be a meaningful part of everything from travel planning to the in-room experience.

From a security perspective, there are equal amounts of growing risks and rewards.

The growing use of generative AI chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT) could potentially be used to collect and store large amounts of data about guests, as well as create more sophisticated cyber-attacks due to their ability to create personalized and targeted messages. At the same time, however, AI surveillance camera systems use AI algorithms to detect, analyze, and respond to security incidents more efficiently than traditional surveillance methods.

Technology is a Dialogue, Not a Transaction

It’s challenging enough when technology planning and deployment is an afterthought in hotel design and construction, often shoehorned into the latter stages of a property’s construction. Worse yet is when property management isn’t proactive or fluid in maintaining or updating that technology, particularly when it comes to evolving security threats.

Continually audit your solutions and maintain an open exchange of information with your vendors, preferably a smaller number of them ideally working through a common point of communication. The right technology partner should be a thought leader, identifying trends and making recommendations that ensure a property doesn’t fall hopelessly behind the malware technology that never stops advancing.

As we move into 2025, events like the Super Bowl or even major trade shows will represent a new wave of high-concentration, densely populated hospitality experiences. How proactive, vigilant, and forward-thinking properties act in preparation for these events will determine how secure they are from attacks internally or externally.