Rough Seas for Carnival Amid Cyberattack

The cruise holiday sector is already facing ongoing anguish due to the pandemic’s effects. To make matters worse for cruise line Carnival Corporation, they have fallen victim to a ransomware cyberattack. In the attack, personal data of both customers and cruise staff are at risk.

Reports state that the attack accessed an encrypted portion of its IT systems. Although they haven’t released details regarding customer numbers or brands affected, specialist cyber forensic specialists continue their investigations.

This is a separate incident from one that occurred in 2019, when the Corporation was reported to be the subject of another cyberattack. The 2019 attack resulted in unauthorized access to employee email accounts.

The Travel Industry Is An Attractive Target

Sadly, the travel industry is an attractive target for hackers due to the volume of customers they handle and the extent of personally identifiable information (PII) they are required to take for bookings.

Carnival hosts almost 13 million passengers each year. The PII can include everything from full names, addresses and contact emails, to telephone information, passport numbers and even payment data.

It’s no surprise that hackers see travel companies as a veritable gold mine.

[Related: Cyber Attacks and Data Breaches Bring More Bad News for the Travel and Leisure Industry]

It therefore remains a priority for firms to consider how they capture, encrypt and store all customer information, to reduce future potential risks. After all, prevention is better than a cure.

A Secure Method For Handling Payments

PCI Pal works with a wide range of organizations to create a secure method for handling credit card data when transacting over the phone or digital.

Through our solutions, organizations can avoid storing payment card data, thanks to descoping technologies that we use.

If integrated into contact centers, we prevent sensitive data from entering the enterprise when agents transact payments over the phone. This means we substantially reduce risk, as there is no payment data available for hackers to reach.

By using the right secure payment technologies to simplify a company’s route to PCI compliance, we improve data’s security.

Plus, consumers today are looking for assurance around their data’s security. This clearly demonstrates to them that the organization they are dealing with has taken thorough steps to keep it protected.