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Are you safe from

? etwork security company Internet Security Systems has just issued a report stating that "security events" - an "event" being any­thing from a computer virus to a

major attack on a computer network -increased by more than 80% in the first quar­ter of this year compared with the previous three months. It's alarming reading for anyone who owns a computer, let alone companies

that base their business on them. But what measures are companies taking to protect the important data stored on their computers?

According to Daniel Felstead, director of security consultants Amicus Mentor France, the hospitality industry is as vulnerable as any other business when it comes to data secu­rity. "In terms of electronic attacks, the threat to hotels from hackers, disgruntled employ­ees and so on is the same as any 50 ►

■

Have you ever asked yourself how

safe critical data is on your computer

network? Sara Edlington highlights

the need for data security

Techno, Caterer

THE COST OF PROTECTION Data security comes at a price. Sol-Tee's Lee Cox has put together some rough figures of the costs in two important areas: ■ Firewall devices differ both in specification and cost andshould be purchased based on internet connection accessspeed. As a benchmark, in order to protect a connection of lessthan 2Mbps, it usually costs less than £4,000 includinginstallation engineer charges.■ Anti-virus protection is equally important The cost ofimplementing and maintaining an effective anti-virus solution isagain case=specific, but for a base of 20 clients and a single mailgateway it would cost about £2,000 including installationengineer costs.

◄ 49 other commercial operation. Themovements of an individual, who they meet,spending patterns and who they are com­municating with could all be attractive tothird parties for a variety of reasons," he says."Consequently, a high level of discreet andeffective security is required in order to pro­tect guests without hindering their lifestyles."

But where do these threats come from? The best-known are viruses and worms that can destroy data on your computer network and, of course, hackers. Thankfully, the Hol­lywood-style hacker is rare, but there are others who use software to "probe" a net­work to see if they can get in. There is also another potential threat to your data: an employee. As Lee Cox, director of IT consul­tancy Sol-Tee, comments, employees should be included in any data security policy.

"Research has shown the greatest threat to a business's security is from its own staff. Some businesses forget to ensure that policy and procedures are set up to protect against potential threats such as e-mail viruses, inter­net misuse and mishandling of personal and private data, which can all lead to an attack on the company's security, not to mention a mark on its reputation."

The knack is to be able to protect your data without alienating your staff or making life difficult for your guests. Cox says that if hotel office staff use an internet connection, the filtering of inbound traffic to the internal

TAKING PRECAUTIONS Jim Smith, general manager of the four-star, 129-bedroom Milton hotel in Glasgow, has plenty of experience with data security. In 1997 a virus got in to his computer system.

"We had a small outbreak caused by a student employee who was employed to carry out a room audit. The student had brought her own disks, which she had obtained through her university. In the event, it was a Microsoft Word macro virus that was more of an inconvenience than a real threat, but it did highlight the problems that a more malicious virus could have caused.•

The hotel now has several security measures in place, with virus protection being high on the list of priorities. "We have implemented virus protection on all servers and desktops,• says Smith. •our gateway server has e-mail filtering for all inbound and outbound e-mail. We also scan all Web and all internet traffic at our firewall. Our virus definitions are updated twice daily and we scan our exchange servers daily for any additional virus risks.•

This has already brought more security to the hotel's system, as it normally detects and quarantines about 20-30 e-mail-bome viruses at its network perimeter daily.

Staff are also made part of the data security measures via employment contracts. "Our staff policy for data security is part of the employees' employment contract in the form of an e-mail and internet use policy document that they have to sign before e-mail and internet accounts are set up for them.•

So far, the cost for computer and internet security has been just short of £12,000.

office network from the public internet is a basic security requirement. However, he warns, if the hotel uses public internet ser­vice terminals or some other type of device that gives hotel residents access to voice, video or data services (like internet protocol telephony phones or PCs), it should be defined as a separate security domain and separated from the office network.

But what if your guests have access to the internet? "This can be carried out by using a separate security domain if there is a sepa­rate internet connection facility, or by using another port on the firewall [a piece of hard­ware and/or software used to protect your network from attack) on the main internet connection," Cox explains.

You also need to know your enemy - and that comes from an internal security audit. According to Felstead, such an audit identi­fies and assesses the risks, both actual and perceived, and allows preventive and response action to be formulated. "The audit is an ongoing process and should be under­taken biannually or following significant polit­ical, social or environmental change likely to affect security."

Cox adds that people also need to be audited as well. "It is also important to make an audit of each user's authorisation and privilege level so confidentiality of business information is secured and maintained. If this policy is adhered to, then security risks will be greatly reduced."

Computer and internet use policies have become popular with other industries. Many such policies are written into the employ­ment contract of the employee, and it would be wise to seek legal advice on this subject. There is other legislation that covers data and information security, including the Data Pro­tection Act. The act requires you to provide

adequate protection for data you hold on your computers. Every situation is different, and it's vital to get appropriate legal advice, as there are several laws that cover computer use that may be relevant to your situation.

As technology moves so quickly, planning is vital and means looking at the bigger picture. "Given the rapid pace of developments in tech­nology, it's essential that new or refurbished buildings are designed to manage change with minimal future cost and disruption," Felstead points out "It is generally considered that secu­rity and communication technology changes are needed every five years or so."

Whatever your situation, data security is a complex issue, and if you're at all unsure about whether your security is up the job, talk to a computer- or data-security consultancy.

The potential for disruption, both to your own system and possibly your guests' lap­tops, is frightening if you are successfully attacked. But it can be even more worrying if you find your commercial insurance does­n't cover you. At the very least, make sure that you're covered.

CONTACTS Amicus Mentor France Tel: 00 33 4 93 94 16 79 Sol-Tee Tel: 0118 948 2848

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Caterer Technology

orking together As technology plays an ever-greater role in hospitality- from in-room entertainment to point

of sale and reservations - it's important that the various software and hardware combinations

at work in your business don' t get in each other's way. Sara Edlington looks at solutions

I n July last year Hotel Technology - Next

Generation (HTNG), a US-based non-profit

organisation of technology experts and

consultants, released a white paper about

technology in the hospitality industry and

where it is heading. One of the issues high­

lighted in the paper was integration - getting

various technologies to "talk" to each other.

Trying to get new software to work with

existing software or to work with a rival com­

pany's software is often a massive headache

for hoteliers. But software vendors are aware

of the problem and are working on solutions.

Alan O'Riordan, sales and marketing

director of Guestline, based in Shrewsbury,

explains how its software will work with other

systems. "All of our systems provide an open

integration architecture. Currently, we have

interfaces with the market-leading systems

for the industry, such as EPoS [electronic

point of sale], door entry, leisure, interactive

television and, of course, PABX [private auto­

matic branch exchange]."

All software needs something to 44 ►

Technology Caterer

"If it's not working, then they'll move

on. Hospitality is too complex to be

handled by any single-box solution"

Matthew Dunn

◄43 run on, and having the right computer system is important. Geoff Chapman, senior partner at Hospitality Solutions UK, of Slough, Berkshire, advises: "Before you can install any property management software, you needgood-quality hardware to run the system on.This is a vital part of the system, as the soft­ware runs all the time. We usually install the

highest-specification hardware that is suited to the application, leav­

ing spare capacity for future expansion."

But which is better -leasing equipment or buy­ing it outright? You can lease equipment over a period of three to five years. Chapman recommends purchasing outright, where possible, rather than leas­ing, which produces another "fixed overhead".

Mike Gadbury, manag­ing director of Visual One

Systems (Europe) in Leatherhead, Surrey, also understands the integra­

tion problem. He says: "Although we have an integrated product, hotels may already have other systems installed, and we integrate with all the leading point-of-sale systems, sales and catering systems and golf and accounting systems."

Wyboston Lakes is a conference and training centre with 283 bedrooms in St Neots, Cambridgeshire. It recently bought V1Sual One's PMS (property management system), Sales & Catering and PoS (point of

sale) packages. Craig Warner, information services

manager at the centre, explains how buying Visual One brought about a big change. 'We decided to replace everything - both

the servers and the 35 users' PCs - firstly because they were so old, but also to give everyone the same hardware, thus making support easier.•

As well as having the three modules installed, the hotel will also be linking them in to other systems they have at the hotel.

How much it will all cost depends on the company, how many software modules you buy, and whether or not you need to upgrade your hardware. For example, the Visual One package includes five modules, with prices from £10,000 to £100,000-plus per module.

Guestline's Rezlynx system has four mod­ules. The company says its prices depend on many factors, such as size of hotel, number of staff to be trained, number of software licences required, and so on. Software licens­ing starts at £2,500 for a single hotel.

Software licensing can be as complicated as the software. Every piece of software you buy comes with a licence - the small print most of us don't read. This tells you what you can and can't do with the software. For example, it may say that you can install it on only one computer. It's important to know exactly what you can do with what you're going to buy.

Another alternative in the integrated soft­ware market is "flexible software" from OSG Systems. William Oswald, managing director of OSG, based in Herefordshire, explains the idea: "The system seamlessly covers all com­mercial areas in an entire hotel or group, everything from front of house to yield man­agement. It can be configured to the exact composition of each business and to the pre­cise needs of each department within that business in all respects - screens, reports, functionality and even scope."

Warner explains: "Visual One is integrated with Servebase for credit card handling, and in August, when front of house goes live, we'll also be linking to our call-logging software. I don't anticipate any problems.•

Brave man. And as training and support is so important, has Visual One lived up to its promises? •we are only live with PoS, so I can only comment on this. The training and support we have received has been second to none, but please note that we are the only UK customer at present, so time will tell."

As the hotel is Visual One's first UK

customer, it's a special case, but Warner says it has cost the hotel £100,000 for both the software and the hardware.

But what of the future? Nigel Allport, marketing director of SoftBrands Hospitality (EMEA) in Woking, Surrey, believes that inte­grated software is the future for hoteliers. "Buying integrated software allows a hote­lier to select software products on a 'best of breed' basis, so a hotel can select PMS (prop­erty management system) and CRS (central reservations system) from one and S&C (sales and catering) from another.•

And Matthew Dunn, a member of the HTNG group, agrees. He feels that hotels are happy to stick with something that is working. "If it's not working, and they have choices, then they'll move on. Hospitality is too complex to be handled by any single­box solution." ■

CONTACTS Guestline 0800 413557 Hospitality Solutions UK

01753 553782 OSG Systems 01547 540000 SoftBrands Hospitality 01483 885000 Visual One Systems 01372 371155 ■ Copies of the Hotel Technology -Next Generation white paper can be downloaded from www.htng.org.

Townhouse Hotel Investments, based in London, has installed OSG

Hospitality in two of its properties, the

Franklin, a five-star hotel with 50 bedrooms, and Egerton House, a four­star hotel with 30 bedrooms, both in Knightsbridge. A third hotel is having the system installed at present.

the organisation decided to use OSG Hospitality. ·oSG was able to configure OSG Hospitality to our exact requirements, and it is still giving us new amendments as our requirements change.•

do it. Hadden-Paton says: •we were using a mishmash of different systems. with little effective integration and a great deal of duplication. In some cases. old suppliers had forced us to use special hardware.•

made or supported, and it looked as

though we might have to replace it at great expense. OSG was able to make

it work and link into OSG Hospitality, saving us a large amount of money.•

For covering three hotels and head office, OSG charged the group £60,000. OSG also saved the group £125,000 on having to replace the phone system.

Alasdair Hadden-Paton, finance director of Townhouse, explains why

The hotels decided to change their hardware to prepare for the new software. Although there was no need for the change, it was a good time to

The old hardware could have caused notable problems. Hadden­Paton comments: "In particular, the group's telephone system is no longer