Agents to fork out for data protection

SOUTH African travel
agents foresee a much
greater spend on data
protection in the coming
year.
This follows a recent
spate of cyber-attacks in
the travel industry combined
with new stringent privacy
requirements, such as
the looming POPI Act and
new PCI DSS compliance
requirements.
Technology giant Thales’
2017 Data Threat Report
warns retailers of the
rising risk levels for data
breaches. Seventy-three
percent of respondents
in the report anticipated
security spending increases
over the next 12 months,
in response to rising threat
levels.
Both Pine Nel, chief
information officer of Carlson
Wagonlit Travel, and Rachael
Penaluna, business manager
Sure Maritime Travel, believe
security costs will increase.
Rachael says with the
Iata requirement for PCI
DSS compliance, all travel
agencies are going to have
to change their structures
and pay for compliant IT
security and inspections.
Although Rachael says it is
still unclear what the cost
will be, she says Sure Travel
head office will likely look
at a ‘blanket plan’ for the
group.
The main problem,
according to Dinesh Naidoo,
group operations director
of SWG, is that most travel
companies keep spending
on the solutions that are no
longer the most effective at
stopping modern breaches.
“It’s important to increase
firewalls and keep up to date
with the latest programmes,”
he says.
TAG has upped security
protocols to ensure access
to the infrastructure is more
secure and that a robust
back-up system is in place.
“We are also in the process
of migrating to Microsoft’s
exchange mail system,
which offers redundancy
on mail and retention on
all mail for restoration
purposes,” says Jonathan
Gerber, TAG director. He
adds that TAG has recently
made budget changes to
address data security.
According to Jonathan,
although TAG has increased
its data security spend
by more than 40%, the
increased cost will only
have a marginal impact on
margins.