“…Most of all, hotel companies need to make a commitment to secure the sensitive information of their companies and their guests, and to seek out informed consultants and advisers.
Information security is a relatively new and rapidly changing area, and requires specialized knowledge; the investment today can protect a hotel from being front page news — for the wrong reasons — later. Developing a comprehensive information privacy and security program…”
The recent headlines about the Target and Neiman Marcus security breach with customer credit cards highlights a growing crisis that concerns owners and operator of hotels as well as retailers. In this article, Bob Braun, one of the senior members of our Global Hospitality Group® who focuses on data security — when he is not working on hotel management or franchise agreements — gives us some thoughts on what to do about this problem.
The Target and Neiman Marcus problem. When 50 million Americans – more than 15% of the nation’s population – wake up to find that their credit card information was compromised while Christmas shopping, we all take note. When we find out that there were 70 million victims, and the information went far beyond credit card information, and that it wasn’t just one chain, Target, but at least four more, including Neiman Marcus (which estimates 40 million payment card numbers were compromised), we should start to look at our own businesses and procedures to think about how we should plan for and respond to these malicious attacks.
For more: http://www.hospitalitynet.org/column/global/154000392/4063594.html
 If you are armed with the right questions,then you can more competently discuss these issues with your legal counsel and local alcohol licensing staff. Ask your legal counsel if you have the appropriate license and see if any of your current practices exceed the boundaries of the hotel’s alcohol license…”
