PCI DSS Certified Hotel ERP to Help Middle East Hotels Prevent Data Breach

Hospitality technology has helped manage hotel operations in many ways. Right from ensuring higher degree of operational automation to reservation, check-in and checkout, technology has extended its support to every aspect of hotel processes. While hotels across the globe are increasingly turning towards implementation of smart technology, hotels in Middle East are yet to catch up with this trend.

According to Chiheb Ben Mahmoud, Executive VP and Head of Hotels & Hospitality (Middle East and Africa), JLL, hotels across Middle East are slow in implementing technology. According to him – hoteliers believe that their data will not be in safe hands and might get stolen.

The magnitude of threat

Hotels world-wide are easy targets for cyber criminals. Reasons are many, such as volume of information including credit card and other payment card data sitting on their database/systems with relatively weaker security layer. A study by Trustwave’s Spider Labs indicates that out of 218 data breach incidents happened in 24 countries, 38 percent of the attacks targeted hotels. Moreover, out of the data stolen, 98 percent was guests’ credit card information. Apart from wreaking havoc on a hotel’s guests’ finances, the impact of a data breach on a hotel could be catastrophic that includes financial and reputational damage beyond repair.

Now, looking at the vulnerability of hotels in this sensitive matter, Middle Eastern hoteliers’ decision to stay away from technology could be considered as a wise step. But, many experts would term it as absurd. Today’s smart hotel management software is capable enough to assist users efficiently prevent data thefts or cyber-attacks in any forms.

Review PCI DSS Certified Hotel Software from IDS Next

IDS Next is one among the very few hotel software providers in Middle East that helps hotel establishments to avert data thefts. Our FortuneNEXT 6i Suite of Hotel ERP is PCI DSS Certified and this internationally recognized security standard helps our Hotel ERP users process, store and transmit their guests’ credit card details in a secured environment. This security standard is prescribed by major credit card companies including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB as part of their merchant agreements.

Being PCI DSS Certified Hotel ERP, our FortuneNEXT 6i Suite of hotel property management system offers AES 128 and SHA 512 bit data encryption. The standard is designed to enable software vendors to develop secure payment applications and prevent third parties from storing sensitive data such as credit card numbers beyond a stipulated time. This is an effective method to protect cardholders' data.

 

Benefits to Middle East hotels

By adopting IDS Next hotel software, hotels across Middle East region including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar can ensure that their database is not compromised. Our Hotel ERP with PCI DSS security standard benefits a hospitality property in terms of -

• Better protection of sensitive company & guest credit card and payment card data
• Reduced risk of data theft ensures more guests trust your hotel brand
• More satisfied guests translates into more business and enhanced revenues

So, if you are an hotelier and fear of hacking is still holding you back from adopting technology, IDS Next, one of the major hotel software companies in Middle East is here to help you. You may get in touch with Dinker Elayadath, Associate VP, Sales at dinker.elayadath@idsnext.com to know more about our hotel software.