Category Archives: Insurance

by | March 10, 2011 · 7:33 pm

Hospitality Industry Information Security Risks: "Electronic Pickpocketing" Allows Criminals To Steal Credit And Debit Cards Containing RFID Technology

“…criminals can steal credit cards, debit cards, passports and other valuable information…This crime is referred to as “electronic pickpocketing”.  The technology used to perform this type of theft is called radio frequency identification or “RFID”….

Hundreds of millions of credit cards, debit cards and all passports issued since 2006 are embedded with a radio frequency identification chip—or RFID.  RFID chips are also commonly used in hotel keys, cards that raise gates in parking garages and unlock doors at businesses.  Government, military and port of entry ID cards are also vulnerable to this type of theft.  You need only swipe the card in front of a reader.  The RFID chip is always on, making consumers more susceptible to identity theft. 

Thieves can steal this information by using a frequency reader.  These readers are inexpensive and easy to obtain.  The thief can simply walk next to you and acquire your credit card number and expiration date without any physical contact. While these cards are in your wallet or purse they can transmit your card or passport number and in some states, your digital drivers’ license information when placed near a reader.  The information almost immediately appears on a computer screen without you ever knowing about it.  Apparently U.S. passports are more difficult to read than cards with RFID chips because they require a password.  However, hackers with enough knowledge can see everything on the passport’s front page.   A thief can be long gone before the consumer ever realizes his information has been stolen.  This is “electronic pickpocketing”.

For more: http://www.ktnv.com/story/14225766/consumers-beware-of-electronic-pickpocketing

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Filed under Crime, Guest Issues, Insurance, Liability, Maintenance, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Theft

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by | March 9, 2011 · 6:26 am

Hospitality Industry Guest Parking Risks: Keys Stolen From "Unattended" Valet Box At Atlanta Restaurant Result In 2 Stolen Cars And Personal Property

 Several sets of car’s keys were taken from an unlocked and unattended valet box near the trendy diner. Another car owner had his 2010 Audi stolen.

The owner of the valet company, Pro Park, said his insurance will cover costs of the stolen cars and replacing all the victims’ keys. 

  ‘It’s pretty brazen to go after them in the view of everyone.’

At a restaurant in Atlanta where a thief took car keys from an unlocked valet box and drove off with a Mercedes which had the ashes of the owner's dead father inside

 

A thief drove off with a car which had the ashes of the owner’s dead father inside the vehicle. Michael Doane’s father died the week before in a car accident and he had planned on scattering the ashes the next day with his family.

The 45-year-old’s Mercedes was parked right in front of  Murphy’s Restaurant in Atlanta’s Virginia Highland area when the cheeky thief struck. Madison Burnett told WSB-TV: ‘It’s pretty brazen to go after them in the view of everyone.’

Restaurant owner Tom Murphy said: ‘This is a tragic situation where a valet company who we subcontracted made a horrific mistake.

‘It is just heartbreaking that this occurred and our prayers go out to this family.  Hopefully the media recognition will greatly assist on the car being found as soon as possible.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1359936/Thief-drives-ashes-car-owners-dead-father.html#ixzz1G70BlETl

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Filed under Crime, Guest Issues, Insurance, Liability, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Theft

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by | March 7, 2011 · 9:01 am

Hospitality Industry Fire Risks: West Virginia Hotel Fire Kills One Guest As Lack Of Sprinkler System, High Winds And Downed Power Lines Thwart Fire Fighters

“…the hotel is about 50 years old and does not have a sprinkler system. The fire, coupled with 30 to 40 mile-per-hour winds, knocked down nearby power lines, forcing the rescue crews back…”

“…The broken live wires forced rescue crews to wait for the power company to arrive at the scene and disconnect the power…”

One person was found dead Saturday morning at the site of a fire that burned a Logan County motel to the ground the day before. The Logan Motor Lodge on Rt. 10 caught fire at about 11:30 p.m. Friday night, Logan firefighter Chris Hatfield said. Firefighters spent about 10 hours battling the blaze, during which one person was reported missing.

It’s not clear whether the body found Saturday morning was that of the missing person. Authorities have not released the name of the person.

Forty of the hotel’s 45 rooms were occupied at the time of the fire, Hatfield said. No other injuries were reported.

“We had a lot of difficulty as far as the high winds were concerned,” Hatfield said.

For more:  http://wvgazette.com/News/201103060427

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by | March 6, 2011 · 3:24 pm

Hospitality Industry Employee Risks: Recession Causing More Laid-Off Workers To File "Wage-And-Hour" Claims Which Is Covered Under "Employment Practices Liability" Insurance

“…industry experts say they have seen an increase in wage-and-hour claims, which has led some insurers to stop writing such defense coverage, which most typically is provided for as a sublimit under employment practices liability insurance policies…”

Laid-off workers can, for example, allege that they were not paid for all hours worked, misclassified or not properly paid overtime, experts say.

As layoffs drive wage-and-hour claims, middle-market employers may find defense coverage more difficult to find and more costly when they do, particularly in California, insurers and brokers say. The market firming for wage-and-hour defense coverage comes after a rise in claims by laid-off workers who allege violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and other laws, according to brokers and insurers.

“It’s a reflection of how difficult it is for employees to find another job,” said Christian Hamlin, a professional lines producer in the Los Angeles office of wholesaler Burns & Wilcox Ltd.

The U.S. unemployment rate remains high, but has improved from the decade’s peak unemployment rate of 10.1% in October 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. In February, the U.S. unemployment rate was 8.9%, a 0.1% decline from January, according to BLS.

At the same time, Coverage remains available as some insurers continue to provide it, said Michael Mahoney, senior vp at Willis Insurance Services of California Inc. in San Francisco.

For more:  http://www.businessinsurance.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110306/ISSUE01/303069982

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Filed under Claims, Employment Practices Liability, Insurance, Labor Issues, Liability, Management And Ownership, Risk Management

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by | March 4, 2011 · 8:32 am

Hospitality Industry Employee Theft: Delaware Hotel Accounting Manager Arrested For Cash Thefts And Falsifying Business Records

Detectives with the Division of Gaming Enforcement arrested 53-year-old Andrew McCoy of Smyrna on Tuesday. He is charged with theft and falsifying business records.

  • An employee theft is any intentional misappropriation of employer property, e.g., inventory, fixed assets, currency checks, or trade secrets.
  • It can include fraud (intentionally misleading the employer), embezzlement (theft of corporate funds) or forgery (altered negotiable instruments).
  • It can be as straightforward as a theft of petty cash or as complex as a misappropriation scheme detectable only in an audit.
  • It can be the isolated act of a single low-level employee or a complex scheme involving a trusted senior employee.

Authorities say the former director of hotel accounting at Dover Downs has been arrested in connection with cash thefts from the hotel. Dover Downs CEO Denis McGlynn tells The News Journal of Wilmington that McCoy was fired in February after evidence was found of internal thefts. McGlynn says the thefts, believed to have totaled between $20,000 and $25,000, involved small cash transactions.

For more:  http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/ac67083ec0e54c05a592be7577a39914/DE–Dover_Downs-Theft/#

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by | March 2, 2011 · 2:14 pm

Hospitality Industry Information Security: British Courts Jail Operators Of World's Largest Internet Crime "Forum" Which Provided "Hacking Software" And Credit Card Theft Instructions

The site contained manuals such as “14 ways of hacking credit cards” and “running cards on eBay” and information on staying anonymous. It sold hacking software and instructions on how to manufacture crystal meth and explosives.

Nicholas Webber, who masterminded the criminal website Ghostmarket.net, has been jailed for five years.

Three teenagers who founded and operated one of the world’s largest English-language internet crime forums, described in court as “Crimebook”, have been sentenced to up to five years in custody. Police estimate that losses from the thousands of credit details traded over the site, Gh0stMarket.net, amount to £16.2m. The web forum, which had 8,000 members worldwide, has been linked to hundreds of thousands of pounds of registered losses on 65,000 bank accounts.

Nicholas Webber, the site’s owner and founder, was arrested in October 2009 with the site’s administrator, Ryan Thomas, after trying to pay a £1,000 hotel bill using stolen card details. They were then 18 and 17. Webber was jailed for five years on Wednesday and Thomas for four years.

After seizing Webber’s laptop, police discovered details of 100,000 stolen credit cards and a trail back to the Gh0stMarket website. Webber and Thomas jumped bail that December, fleeing to Majorca, but were rearrested when they flew back to Gatwick airport on 31 January 2010.

Southwark crown court was told how public-school-educated Webber, the son of a former Guernsey politician, was using an offshore bank account in Costa Rica to process funds from the frauds. After his initial arrest, Webber threatened on a forum to blow up the head of the police e-crimes unit in retaliation, and used his hacking skills to trace officers’ addresses.

For more:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/02/ghostmarket-web-scam-teenagers

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by | February 26, 2011 · 8:09 am

"P3 Hospitality Risk Update": "Title 3 And ADA Law Changes" From Petra Risk Solutions' Risk Manager Joe Fisco (Video)

[vimeo 51945038 w=500 h=279]

Petra Risk Solutions’ Risk Manager, Joe Fisco, offers a P3 Hospitality Risk Update – ‘Title 3 and ADA Law Changes’. 

P3 ( Petra Plus Process) is the Risk Management Division of Petra Risk Solutions – America ’s largest independent insurance brokerage devoted exclusively to the hospitality marketplace.

 For more information on Petra and P3 visit petrarisksolutions.com or call 800.466.8951.

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Filed under Employment Practices Liability, Guest Issues, Health, Insurance, Labor Issues, Liability, Management And Ownership, Risk Management, Training

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by | February 16, 2011 · 4:18 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Risks: The 2012 "Americans With Disabilities Act" (ADA) Update Will Impact Hotel Ballrooms, Gyms, Spas And Employee Areas

“…the changes that are most significant to the hotel industry will affect public spaces, such as ballrooms and assembly areas, gyms, spas and employee areas…”

“…the current standards mandate that if you have six toilet compartments in a restroom, not only does one have to be a large ADA stall, but you have to have a second ADA stall that’s designed for people who have mobility issues. The second stall must be narrower and have rails on both sides…”

The new requirements take effect on 15 March 2012. Because the new rules will not be requirements for more than a year, any new development or remodeling completed before the new law goes into effect will be considered compliant.

The new standard is triggered by six fixtures, not compartments, in any combination of toilets or urinals. If the bathroom has only two stalls, one has to be the big ADA stall and the other has to be for those with mobility problems.

Other changes, according to sources:

  • The amount of counter space provided in the bathrooms of accessible rooms must be equivalent to the space provided in non-accessible rooms.
  • There is more explicit information about the acceptable depth of counters, which would apply to registration counters and counters in retail areas.
  • Swimming areas and spas are subject to expanded rules on accessible routes. Depending on the size of the pool, there may be a requirement for more than one access route into the pool, such as a ramp and stairs with handrails.
  • If there are multiple elevators that respond to the same call button, all elevators must be compliant instead of just one so that someone in a wheelchair doesn’t have to wait for the accessible one.
  • The disabled must be able to make reservations for guestrooms in the same manner as anyone else; if a hotel has an online system, they have to be able to reserve an accessible room online.
  • There are increased requirements for accessible routes within buildings.

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by | February 15, 2011 · 8:49 am

Hospitality Industry Data Security: Hotel And Restaurant Management Should Consider "Tokenization" For Credit Cards And Sensitive Data

“…tokenization is a data security model that generates surrogate values, called tokens, to replace sensitive data—credit card numbers, for example—in applications and database fields. The sensitive data is simultaneously encrypted and stored in a central data vault, where it can be unlocked only with proper authorization credentials...”

In 2011…expect to see many more mid-sized to large enterprises adopt tokenization more broadly to protect many other types of sensitive information, including electronic health records (EHR).

It does this by removing sensitive data from applications and databases, which has the added benefit of reducing scope for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) compliance audits.  Over the past couple of years, the tokenization data security model has taken its rightful place alongside data encryption, and it is well on its way to becoming a commonplace solution for credit card protection.

What’s more, a particular version of tokenization—Format Preserving Tokenization™—is equally adept at protecting personally identifiable information (PII) and electronic health records (EHR) to help organizations comply with data privacy laws like the EU Data Privacy Directive and HIPAA.

For more:  http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201107/6818/RSAC-2011-Data-Security-Wunderkind-Tokenization

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by | February 12, 2011 · 9:05 am

Hotel Industry Guest Issues: Hotel's Must Establish Overnight "Pet" Policies Including Fees, Deposits, Allowable Dog Breeds And Size, Vaccination Requirements, And Damage Liability (Video)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO5Fqc5kuQc]

Consumer Reports magazine finds more hotels are making their rooms pet friendly.

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