{"id":1022,"date":"2012-07-03T19:25:32","date_gmt":"2012-07-03T23:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/boardingarea.com\/blogs\/verygoodpoints\/?p=1022"},"modified":"2013-04-23T13:43:15","modified_gmt":"2013-04-23T17:43:15","slug":"yourdata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2012\/07\/03\/yourdata\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Data Is Not As Secure As You Think – even at hotels\/on cruises"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two recent blog posts, and an article about a massive data breach at Wyndham Hotels and Resorts and Cunard Cruises prompted me to post about the topic. \u00a0View from the Wing<\/a> & Frequently Flying<\/a>\u00a0both posted about American Airlines lack of participation with AwardWallet. \u00a0It’s frustrating not to be able to track your miles. \u00a0I know, I love my miles too and I love to track them with one vendor. However, there is an inherient risk any time your provide your personal data over the internet and everyone should be aware of them.<\/p>\n

Let’s look at the most recent major security breach to hit the news. \u00a0On June 26, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission (\u201cFTC\u201d) filed a\u00a0complaint<\/a>\u00a0against Wyndham Worldwide Corporation and 3 of their subsidiaries. The complaint\u00a0alleged that\u00a0the company\u2019s failure to adequately safeguard customers\u2019 personal information led to millions of dollars in losses to fraud. \u00a0The complaint alleges that Wyndham\u2019s privacy policy misrepresented the security measures it used to safeguard personal information. \u00a0The complaint also charges that Wyndham, after the first breach, failed to fix security vulnerabilities which the FTC claims resulted in two additional data security breach incidents in less than two years.<\/p>\n

In the most recent data breach, just announced last week,\u00a0Cunard Cruise lines was forced to shut down its online booking system after accidentally sending the personal information of more than 1,200 passengers to an undisclosed number of people who are registered users of the Cunard website. \u00a0Members started posting a spreadsheet they had received from Cunard on chat room discussion boards and it contained the personal data of passengers – including passport numbers, names, dates of birth and\u00a0other personally identifiable information.<\/p>\n

American Airlines has every right to be worried about the transmission of secure data through third-party vendors. \u00a0Major corporations like Wyndham and Linked In all are becoming victims of sophisticated (and probably some not-so-sophisticated) hackers. Last month, Russian hackers stole 6 million passwords from Linked In. \u00a0In 2010, American Airlines itself was the victim of a data breach when a hard drive\u00a0\u00a0containing private employment records from the years 1960 to 1995 for over 79,000 employees went missing.<\/p>\n

Airlines, hotels and most of all, consumers should demand security, not convenience. \u00a0The question I would be asking isn’t why American doesn’t participate with AwardWallet, but what risks were present with AwardsWallet’s app that prompted American Airlines (and others) not to participate. \u00a0How can you protect yourself?<\/p>\n