“…ensuring the security of this data is so important that it’s consuming hotel IT departments’ attention right now, said Josh Weiss, Hilton Worldwide’s VP of brand and guest technology…”
 “…The stakes involved in protecting “personally identifiable information” (data that can be used to uniquely identify, contact or locate a single person) are far higher with this personal information than with credit-card information…”
As hotels collect more personal information about guests and the Epsilon and Sony data breaches earlier this year shook people’s confidence in corporate data protection, hotel guests are increasingly asking hotels how well they’re securing their personal information, Mark McBeth, Starwood Hotels’ VP of information technology, said during a recent conference.
IT execs from Starwood and also Hilton and owner/operator White Lodging said they’re responding by making guest-data security their No. 1 priority. “PII is considered high-risk because if there were to be a breach, you’re exposing the guest’s identity,” he said. “It paints some pretty scary pictures.”
A “PII” breach could potentially lead to child abduction or a murder if information falls into the wrong hands, he said.
