The warning comes as a new study found that hospitality businesses are still relying on weak and predictable passwords for their systems.
The research from NordPass has highlighted an industry-wide lack of strong password hygiene, exposing reservation platforms, PoS systems and staff accounts to potential breaches.
NordPass advice
- Provide regular employee training on cybersecurity. Educating staff on password hygiene and cyber risks helps build a security-aware culture and reduces human error.
- Avoid company names, dates, or role-specific terms in passwords. These are easy for hackers to guess or find through social engineering and should never be used.
- Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA). Adding an extra layer of verification helps protect accounts even if a password is compromised.
- Adopt secure password managers for teams. Password managers simplify the creation and storage of strong passwords, ensuring everyone follows best security practices.
Easy to guess passwords
When looking at the pub sector NordPass said that it found passwords that are easy to guess such as ‘Pub123’ were still in use across the sector which can put the pub systems and customer data at serious risk.
The warning comes as disruption from a wave of cyber attacks on retail outlets M&S and Co-op are under investigation.
NordPass warned operators to ensure their systems are secure.
“Pubs today rely on digital systems for everything from reservations to payments - but weak passwords are leaving the front door wide open for cybercriminals,” said Karolis Arbaciauskas, head of business product at NordPass.
Easy to crack
“Pub operators don’t need to be tech experts - just using stronger, more unique passwords and changing them regularly can go a long way toward keeping systems secure.”
Arbaciauskas added: “We’re still seeing passwords like ‘123456’ or ‘Pub123’ used in the industry. These are far too easy to crack and can put customer data at serious risk.”
This news comes as licensees were recently warned about exercising “extreme caution” over social media posts, especially those that accuse customers of wrong doing.
