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Travel firms offered free tech to fight cybercrime

Free technology to fight cybercrime is to be offered to travel companies.

The US-based Global Cyber Alliance, of which UK organisation Prevention of Fraud in Travel is a founding partner, will launch the initiative on May 30.

It aims to reduce the risk of spam, phishing emails, ransomware and cyberattacks on travel and tourism companies.

The initiative follows a major cyber breach at Abta in February that affected 43,000 people and up to 650 Abta members.

Profit chairman Barry Gooch said: “We have seen a big increase in this type of crime and we are working with a global police network to stop this.

“We need to get these tools out to all sectors of the travel industry to reduce criminal attacks.”

About 60% of all data breaches seen by Profit in the UK travel industry are caused by phishing, Gooch added.

The Global Cyber Alliance will unveil two software solutions.

The first, Dmarc, which stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance, is already used by government agencies to block malicious emails before they reach staff inboxes.

The second is a DNS (domain name system) blocking service. It is based on a global infrastructure built up by GCA with threat intelligence providers and research institute Packet Clearing House, which analyses internet traffic exchange, to collect, analyse and block malicious domains.

Free webinars will be held to explain how companies can use the software to “harden” their business systems against attack.

Register for Travel Weekly’s Cyber Security Summit here

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