Trip Advisor experiences the risk of using numerical data

One of the Internet and all numerical technologies characteristics is the easy and quick access to information they provide to users. Indeed, dematerialized data circulate from one point to another without any physical constraints. They can then be shared much more rapidly than the old-fashioned paper-based information. Therefore, using numerical technologies in tourism businesses (like in many other activities as well) is a guarantee of efficiency, as it generates increased exchange fluidity.

Nonetheless, such an easy circulation of information also poses a threat to companies using IT. Among others, computerized and numerical databases represent a wonderful tool for strategic spying. Indeed, such an easy and quick access to information, even if it is protected by security codes, gives a lot of opportunities to stole secret data, which endangers businesses. A recent example of this happened in the end of March 2011. Indeed, the very popular travel advice website Trip Adivsor, which is a branch of Expedia, one of the main online travel agencies, was the victim of Internet piracy.


On Thursday, March 24th, Trip Advisor CEO, Steve Kaufer, issued a newsletter to the travel community members regarding the fact that a third party had unlawfully pirated part of the member email list. The result of that intrusion was that some members which email addresses had been robbed might have received some unsolicited emails (SPAM). However, the company reassured its members that there were no stolen passwords and all information under password protection remained secure. Trip Advisor CEO also indicated that even if the company was still searching for the details of the case, the point of weakness that had allowed the intrusion was identified and the origin of the problem was solved. Trip Advisor is currently “implementing additional security precautions to help prevent another incident in the future”, said Steve Kaufer. Then, the damages have not been as important and harmful as they could have been.

Yet, that experience proves that, in spite of security measures, the vulnerability of numerical data towards piracy is high. Even big companies with skilled staff specialized in IT can encounter such incidents and are not perfectly prepared to prevent the damages. In that precise case, the consequences have not been too bad, but it could have been worse. Indeed, fortunately, Trip Advisor does not keep financial and personal data about its members... But if they did, the harm would have been very high, spreading from members to the company's image.

Therefore, one would ask: “How to prevent this type of intrusion?”. Obviously, there is a choice to make between physical and numerical existence of strategic and secret information. Consequently, some financial evaluation of the dilemma must have been done, which outcome, judging by the appearances, is that companies accept the risk that is inherent to computerized and numerized data, as the advantages of using them counterbalance the drawbacks.



References:
- Trip Advisor's e-newsletter of March 24th, 2011
- Trip Advisor's webpage about the incident: http://www.tripadvisor.com/vpages/more_information.html

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