Course addresses cyber-security gaps

3:48 p.m., Sept. 30, 2004--Dorian Cougias said he couldn’t resist hacking into his hotel’s computer when he came to Newark last June to tape a new online course on computer security.

Cougias, an expert on network security in the hospitality industry, said he confessed to the surprised hotel manager and pointed out the security gaps.

The noncredit hotel, restaurant and institutional management course that he taped, “Assured Security for Hospitality Operations,” debuts Oct. 11. It is the first online course to outline the problems the hospitality industry faces daily and explain how to set up an audit process to fix them.

“At all hotel chains, the credit card information for the people staying in the hotel rooms is as secure as the person who has the least integrity of all the people who work there. Most credit card data stolen in the last five years was stolen by people who work in the organization,’’ Cougias said.

Cougias said he often consults with hotel managers who have extensive control systems; and, as he walks through the hotel offices, he sees employees have taped their computer passwords to their monitors.

The California computer security expert was brought to UD by Cihan Cobanoglu, assistant professor of HRIM, after the two worked together at professional conferences. Cougias uses Cobanoglu’s survey statistics to show that the hospitality industry is vulnerable.

Cobanoglu’s most recent survey of hospitality professionals found that 20 percent of respondents said their computer networks had been attacked within the previous 12 months. Independent hackers were responsible for 57.1 percent of the attacks, but disgruntled employees were behind 21.4 percent.

“The biggest problem in the hotel world is education,’’ Cougias said. “Folks don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing. They don’t know what the controls are that they have to, by law, have in place.”

He said recent state and federal laws governing privacy mete out fines to establishments and to managers who do not take proper steps to safeguard customer information.

“Network security is getting very important in every field of business. The hospitality industry is no exception,’’ Cobanoglu said. “There is a huge need for training in network security in hospitality organizations. Dorian is an industry leader in network security and disaster recovery. Therefore, we asked him to design this new network security for hospitality organizations course. This will be the first course of its kind in the hospitality industry. We are very excited to be part of this effort, which will help our industry tremendously.”

For more information on the course, visit [www.continuingstudies.udel.edu/certificate/hosp/ecommerce/courses.shtml]. To register, visit [https://www2.continuingstudies.udel.edu/noncredit/reg/].

Article by Kathy Canavan

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