What services does the hospitality sector need most from MSPs?

In the hospitality industry, guest data security is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. It seems like every day we hear about another major data breach, and lately the hotel industry has been a prime target. Data breaches have become the “new norm” and only informed diligence can reduce vulnerabilities.

Hospitality is perennially in the top three most targeted industries. Why? For starters, hotels process a lot of data—both financial and personal. (In some luxury locations that offer extras such as spa treatments, there may even be sensitive health-related information.) Hospitality is also labor-intensive. To run a hotel with excellence and to provide the kind of personalized attention today’s guests expect, hotels must equip staff with various forms of technology. In a nutshell, the hospitality industry manages significant amounts of data via multiple access points and multiple systems, with all of it being utilized by teams of people whose primary objective is to be open, welcoming, and accommodating. Because no single form of protection is enough to stop relentless cybercriminals, VENZA MSP provides a layered approach to security, utilizing multiple lines of defense to repel potential attacks. Through the tools provided by SolarWinds MSP, we are able to focus on satisfying Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance requirements, with security in the following areas as an added layer to our offering.

• Systems Patching
  Hoteliers need to be guest-centric, not worrying about vulnerabilities that could be exploited by cybercriminals. Hoteliers can’t see all threats but fine-tuning your automated patch management policies to prevent cyber-attacks and optimizing system performance with scheduling, patch roll-back, and support for Exchange and Office 365 helps to protect hotels from the front desk to the server closet.
• Antivirus
  You can’t ignore the basics! Although not enough on their own to stop attacks, antivirus tools are a useful line of defense against malicious software used by attackers to gain a foothold in a hotel’s system. Best practices and compliance requirements demand malware defenses. Having a managed antivirus service in place with signature-based scanning, heuristic checks, active protection and behavioral scanning is the type of protection you need when the “human-firewall” fails.
• Logging and Threat Monitoring
  VENZA MSP helps hotels implement a centralized log and threat monitoring solution to filter out the noise and bring “real” threats and issues to the forefront for quick investigation.
• Back-Up/Recovery
  No one wants to lose information but backing up guest data is paramount for any hotelier.  Being able to backup and restore a hotel’s essential data and keep it operational maintains profitability, reputation, and guest satisfaction.

These items serve as a solid core that satisfies the compliance component for our customers. We are also able to apply additional layers to help provide extra security for hospitality businesses, these include:

• Web Filtering
  Because many malware strains are delivered by a browser, web protection is an important part of a layered defense strategy. Just like antivirus software, web protection services receive regular updates of malicious sites and will be used to block users on hotel networks. Having web protection in place that keeps users safe and productive while using the web with threat protection and site blacklists goes a long way toward reinforcing the human firewall and helping hotels to mitigate risk.
• Mail Protection
  VENZA MSP offers customers inbound and outbound email protection against spam, malware, ransomware, phishing, and other email-borne attacks. Again, this added layer of protection at the property level can mean the difference between business as usual or extended downtime to fix infected systems, costing a hotel money and damage to its reputation.
• Next Generation End Point Security
  Next-gen endpoint protection does not rely only on a store of antivirus signatures or signature-based technology to combat malware. It’s a system of security tools that keeps learning about malware (via various techniques and vectors) and countering them in real-time rather than reacting once the damage has already been done. Having this intelligence in place helps MSPs to protect hotels from ever-changing threats—and also helps them to recover quickly when ransomware or other exploits occur.

VENZA has been providing to the hospitality industry for over a decade. VENZA MSP will further the mission of its parent company by providing a layered approach to security services all with products provided by SolarWinds MSP. In 2019, we have staffed and opened a new office in Pensacola, Florida, and have started to offer security services successfully to our own clients. None of this would have been possible without the products/services provided by SolarWinds MSP. The solutions and guidance have allowed VENZA MSP a shorter launch time and we look forward to all of the new things we will be offering next year.

Stephen Gaia is Managed Services Director at VENZA MSP