Cyberattackers are hitting the digital road, looking to make some virtual stops at various hotels that contract with Booking.com to sell rooms.
The idea is to phish the hotels' backend Booking.com logins, with the aim of taking over the accounts and ultimately harvesting data on the hotel's customers.
According to an analysis from Perception Point on the campaign, the threat actors are significantly innovating in their tactics, by focusing on specific industry practices and relationships to conduct targeted and compelling phishing attacks.
Many of the phishing messages are to hotel managers, claiming that former guests are writing scathing reviews of the property online.
Once duped into clicking, recipients are directed to a fake but very convincing-looking Booking.com website, complete with a believable URL. The targets are asked to enter their passwords on the site, and the attackers are home free.
Cabra notes that successful phishers can indeed land themselves a rich prize - the data in question is quite meaty.
This trove of detailed data can help make the second-stage follow-on attacks on the hotel's customers as believable as possible, he adds.
Cyber Defense Must Evolve With Hospitality Attack Sophistication Cabra notes that the most interesting and novel aspect of this attack is the sophistication and multi-layered nature of the phishing campaigns; they demonstrate significant evolution when it comes to social engineering.
In turn, this necessitates a corresponding advancement in cybersecurity strategies and security awareness training programs, starting with the basics.
Beyond that, investing in robust email and browser security solutions, and regularly checking the efficacy of hotel security stacks, should be on the to-do list, he says.
This Cyber News was published on www.darkreading.com. Publication date: Tue, 09 Jan 2024 22:50:15 +0000