Ransomware: A 3rd Person View

Many of you have read and commented on the "Living the Ransom" article I wrote a short time back. Again in 2021 we see that Ransomware is going nowhere, and is here to stay. Recently, I walked into a situation that allowed me to view Ransomware from a whole new angle...

It was the 2nd week into February, my wife and I decided to escape for a bit. I had booked us a quite little get-away to a tucked away farm in the mountains. There would be breakfast, lunch, dinner, fireplaces to sit by, quite times, no distractions. We had even booked a few amenities around the farm; we were excited! We were ready for some cold mountain temperatures and hanging out by the fire. However....

We arrived at the farm, and I walked to the check-in desk. Once at the desk, I noticed the staff were very professional, nice and accommodating to anything we wanted.... but I also noticed they seemed a bit frazzled, like things weren't going too smooth this early morning for them.....That's when I looked over the counter and noticed this:

I immediately looked to my wife and said.... "They have been Ransomed!" Anyone that has ever been through a Ransomware attack, has seen or even placed some type of note like this on EVERY MACHINE! Suddenly, PTSD started kicking-in and I knew exactly what the staff were facing.....

We were asked at the check-in about our reservations, because they had experienced a "system outage" and lost them...As well as all dinner reservations, spa reservations and oh-yeah "we cant take a credit-card at the moment"...…Needless to say, through-out our stay we received a unique experience of watching this unfold.

Over the next few days, we watched as guest lost their minds about lost reservations, dinner service that took hours, food allergy information gone and all credit card transactions being taken by a single iPad with a square reader.... Many guest were upset, but my wife and I knew the pains of this. I couldn't get over the fact that I was looking to have a nice time away from work, life and spend some time with my wife... and we had walked straight into an active cyber-attack...This stuff is real!

After speaking with some of the staff it had been verified they had been hit with a Ransomware attack... the "what's a Bitcoin?" question kind of sealed the deal... I started taking note of all that was impacted. Here are a few things:

• All reservations were Gone! (Stay, Spa, Restaurant...etc.)
• All special guest information.... Gone!
• No credit card transactions... Gone!
• Longer wait times...Guest Gone!
• The environment had to revert back to paper...(this killed dinner service, some couples waited 2 hours and never received food) ...People's minds Gone!
• Most importantly... Brand Reputation Gone!

To summarize all of this up, I want point out a few key things... Who would have thought that a Hospitality Group would be a target? Certainly not the Hospitality Group, but the attackers did. Let's think about it... they hit a very nice resort on probably one of their biggest weekends, Valentine's Day! Some guest were served food that could have caused a life threating situation... who knows if they were able to collect on every charge... but Brand Reputation! The taste this left in people's mouths will not soon be forgotten.

You see my wife and I, we got it. We knew their pain and I must say our service was great, the staff did great (all things considered), and we will be back. However; others didn't quite know what was going on, nor care....I am not sure if they will see those folks again.

It's simple. Not if, but when! Your are a target, have a plan! Invest Now, or Pay dearly later!