Pritchard, lead partner for travel at the business advisory firm, played a hard-hitting video to the audience of around 500 delegates which showed how easy it can be to fall victim to a cyber attack as a business.
Pritchard’s main piece of advice for avoiding such an attack was to regularly update anti-virus software.
He added: “It’s difficult for people to have all this resource in-house, so seeking some guidance and specialist help can be necessary.
“I think [the recent NHS cyber attack] will tighten up practices, but it’s not easy because every time you come up with [a good defence], they come up with something new.”
Pritchard added that the rise of the internet of things (the interconnection of devices via the internet enabling them to send and receive data), could create more “access points” with regard to cyber security crime.
Pritchard predicted that wearable devices, facial recognition technology and biometrics would be a key area of focus for travel businesses, highlighting that Royal Caribbean and Club Med were already bringing in wearables, while Virgin Atlantic had trialled facial recognition. MSC Cruises will launch it in 2018.
“In fact, 30% of airports and 20% of global airlines are trialling types of wearable by the end of 2018,” he said. “It is coming. More than 50% of airports are either deploying or planning to deploy beacons within the next 12 months, which will allow them to track people as they move through.”
He continued: “We already have cruise ships around the world connected by the internet of things.
“The challenge is the cyber stuff I talked about and how there are so many more access points.”
Pritchard concluded that travel businesses needed to be flexible to succeed. “The culture of all the organisations we work in will change,” he said. “The sort of skills that you’ll need coming through will change. Being agile at changing the way your business operates could impact your cost base.”
