Cybersecurity for Hotels and Resorts
Information security and cybersecurity specialised in hospitality: protecting guest data, LGPD compliance, and management of threat monitoring and incident response, carried out by the hotel's suppliers under our coordination.
What's included
The goal is not to pile up tools: it is to reduce the chance of an incident stopping operations or exposing guest data. A hotel's attack surface goes far beyond the PMS. We cover everything from data governance to how the front desk team behaves, across the areas below.
Data governance
Security policies, standards and procedures, including encryption of data at rest and in transit, documented and applied consistently across the whole operation: at the hotel, in the office and in cloud services.
LGPD and good practice
Compliance with the LGPD and the principles of confidentiality, integrity and availability of guest data.
Managing threat monitoring
We define what needs monitoring, select the detection tool or supplier and make sure alerts are acted on, so incidents are caught before they affect operations.
Network segmentation
Separate networks for operations, guests and critical systems, containing the reach of any incident and keeping guest Wi-Fi connection logs stored securely, as Brazil's Marco Civil da Internet recommends.
Managing incident response
Tested response and continuity plans, with defined roles for the hotel and for each supplier, and coordination of the response when something goes wrong.
Access and devices
Control over who can access what (IAM), with MFA, least privilege, admin accounts kept under control and access removed promptly when someone leaves the hotel, across accounts such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, plus the rules for central management of the devices staff use (MDM), applied by the technical team or supplier.
Vulnerabilities and SIEM
Vulnerability assessments and scoped penetration tests run by specialist testers we coordinate, including skimming checks on POS terminals, and selection and coordination of centralised event monitoring tools (EDR/SIEM) with the supplier responsible for responding to alerts.
Assets and classification
We map the PMS, POS, booking engine, electronic locks with mobile keys and other systems by the sensitivity of the data they process.
Supplier risk
Due diligence and data processing agreements (DPAs) with OTAs, payment gateways and PMS/POS providers.
Continuity and immutable backup
Business impact analysis, recovery targets (RTO/RPO) for each critical system and immutable backup routines, on site and in the cloud, to protect against ransomware, with restore tests that prove the backups actually work.
Training and phishing
Phishing simulations aimed at the front desk and back office, where human error costs the most.
Patching and configuration
We set the standard for security updates, secure configuration baselines (such as the CIS Benchmarks) and change control, and track how the technical team or supplier applies them to the systems used in daily operations.
- Map of assets and systems classified by sensitivity (PMS, POS, booking engine and other integrations)
- Documented information security policy
- Incident response and business continuity plan
- Vulnerability assessment report
- Register of critical suppliers with due diligence status
Why hotel cybersecurity is different
Hotel cybersecurity is not the same as generic corporate information security. A typical office protects a relatively small number of internal systems. A hotel or resort runs a far more mixed technology stack, with different suppliers, different kinds of data and physical access points that many businesses in other sectors do not have: PMS, POS terminals, guest Wi-Fi, payment systems, guest personal data, OTAs and booking engines, physical access control and CCTV, outsourced suppliers and, behind all of that, the operation's own administrative and corporate systems.
Each of these links widens the attack surface in a way a generic security checklist does not cover. The PMS holds guest data and integrates with almost every other system. POS terminals process cards and have long been a target for skimming. The Wi-Fi network serves anonymous guests alongside the administrative network. OTAs and the booking engine exchange guest and payment data with third parties outside the hotel's direct control. CCTV cameras and electronic locks are, in practice, IoT devices connected to the network, with the same risk as any other poorly configured endpoint. It is this combination, not any one of these items on its own, that makes cybersecurity in hotels and resorts a discipline of its own within information security.
Hotels handle sensitive guest data every day: identity documents, payment details, preferences and stay history. A security failure damages guest trust and can create legal exposure for the property.
We treat protecting that data as an essential part of the hotel experience, not an extra layer. Our work follows the ISO/IEC 27001 and 27002 and NIST information security guidelines, adapted to the operational reality of each hotel and resort. Well-implemented security is invisible to the guest and solid behind the scenes.
Because many of these systems belong to suppliers and connect from outside the hotel, the work includes assessing the risk these partners bring and preparing the operation to react quickly to incidents, with tested backups and a team trained to recognise phishing attempts, one of the most common attack vectors in the hotel sector.
Offering Wi-Fi to guests also carries a legal obligation separate from the LGPD: Brazil's Marco Civil da Internet requires whoever provides internet access to keep connection logs for one year, and the prudent course is for the hotel to keep them, with the contract stating who holds them when the network is run by a managed Wi-Fi provider. And at the point of sale, regular physical checks for skimming devices on POS terminals remain one of the simplest and most often overlooked protections against card fraud.
Every hotel that accepts cards, directly or through a gateway, is in scope for PCI DSS (guide in Portuguese), the payment card industry security standard. Unlike the LGPD, which is law and covers personal data in general, PCI DSS is a contractual requirement imposed by the card schemes and acquirers specifically on card data, and it covers network segmentation, encryption, access control and vulnerability scanning of payment systems. A hotel with POS, a PMS integrated with a gateway and guest Wi-Fi usually has to meet both regimes at the same time, and the requirements overlap: a well-segmented network, for example, reduces PCI DSS audit scope and also makes it easier to demonstrate LGPD compliance.
Booking fraud has gone digital too: forged Pix payment receipts and fraudulent charges combined with hijacked WhatsApp conversations (in Portuguese) are now a common scam against hotel front desks, and they usually go unnoticed until the bank reconciliation shows the Pix never arrived or the card chargeback arrives.
Related articles (in Portuguese)
How to protect a hotel against ransomware: prevention, response and recovery
How an attack paralyses the PMS, bookings and door locks, the five controls that reduce the risk most, and what to do in the first hours.
Read article
Hotel cybersecurity risk report 2026
Attack rates, breach costs, threat groups active in Latin America and the most common defence gaps in hotels.
Read article
Cybersecurity risks most hotels have not yet addressed
The four attack surfaces that expose hotels most, and the security baseline the LGPD requires in practice.
Read articleFrequently asked questions about hotel cybersecurity
How can a hotel protect itself against cyber attacks?
Five controls address most of the risk: two-factor authentication on all remote access and on the PMS, tested immutable backup with a real restore, a network segmented between guests, operations and payments, security updates applied within a defined timeframe, and phishing training for the front desk and back office. The rest is contractual: every supplier with clear responsibility for the security of what it runs.
How can a hotel protect its PMS?
An individual account for each user, with access limited to what the role requires, revoked immediately when someone leaves. Two-factor authentication on any access from outside the hotel network. The PMS server or instance on a network separate from guest Wi-Fi. Daily backup with a copy out of reach of whoever administers the system. And a contract with the supplier that defines who is responsible for updates, for incidents and for exporting the data when the contract ends.
How is a hotel's cybersecurity assessed?
An assessment starts with an inventory of the systems that handle guest and card data, moves on to reviewing access, backups, network segmentation and supplier contracts, and ends with a list of gaps prioritised by risk. Technical tests, such as vulnerability scanning and penetration testing, come afterwards, with a defined scope.
What should a hotel's incident response plan include?
Who decides and who carries out each step, the contacts for each supplier with a contracted response time, the containment procedure (isolate, preserve evidence, do not shut down before recording), the criteria for notifying the ANPD (Brazil's data protection authority) and affected guests (under Resolution CD/ANPD No. 15/2024, the deadline is 3 working days from becoming aware of the incident), and a way to run the front desk with the PMS offline. The plan needs to be tested in a simulation at least once a year.
Does a hotel need a CISO?
It needs the role, not necessarily a full-time post: someone who answers for information security to the leadership team, sets priorities and holds suppliers to account. Few independent hotels are large enough for a full-time CISO, which is why the part-time virtual CISO model exists: the governance of a security executive, without the cost of a hire.
Does HotelTI carry out monitoring and respond to incidents?
No. We define what needs monitoring, select the detection and response tool or supplier, put the plan in place and coordinate the response when an incident happens. Running the monitoring and the technical work of containment and recovery stays with the supplier contracted for it and with the hotel's support team, under our coordination.
Ready to protect your hotel's data?
Identify the main security risks in your operation before they become incidents. We work in English or Portuguese, Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 18:00 Brasília time.