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- No. 8 | CyberVade's Weekly Scoop 🍦
No. 8 | CyberVade's Weekly Scoop 🍦
RFID card vulnerabilities, 🏝Importance of cybersecurity for Curaçao's tourism, CIA Triad, and CyberVade @ Curaçao Tech Meetups!
Niko Kluyver & Caetano Kluyver
August 23, 2024
Hi there, this is CyberVade’s Weekly Scoop🍦, where we bring you Cybersecurity, AI, Data Privacy and Compliance knowledge updates.
Every issue, we’ll take you on a tour of the latest cybersecurity headlines (⚡️), throw in some witty analysis (🧠 ), serve up a mini cybersecurity MBA - because who doesn’t love a byte-sized brain boost? (🎓) And finally, shine a spotlight on one of CyberVade’s solutions to show how it can save the day ( 🚀).
Today’s edition: Number 8️⃣.
8️⃣ is also the atomic number of the element oxygen; its also associated with ‘eternity’ from a spiritual perspective; and its the luckiest number in Chinese culture. But I digress.
This is what we’ve got for you:
⚡️RFID card vulnerability, Data Privacy as the baseline for AI, increased cybercrime in Africa
"The backdoor [...] allows the instantaneous cloning of RFID smart cards used to open office doors and hotel rooms around the world," https://thehackernews.com/2024/08/hardware-backdoor-discovered-in-rfid.html
Sound Data Privacy is (should be) the Baseline for Responsible AI. The datasets used to train AI models are astronomical: “the growth of ChatGPT’s training dataset from 1.5 billion parameters in 2019 to 175 billion parameters in 2020—and this number has inevitably increased since then” https://www.csis.org/analysis/protecting-data-privacy-baseline-responsible-ai
More economic growth in Africa, more cybercrime. So Economy ⬆️, cybercrime ⬆️? https://www.darkreading.com/cyber-risk/africa-s-economies-feel-pain-of-cybersecurity-deficit
Compliancy as the safety net against cyberthreats: https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/en/insights/articles/understanding-data-privacy-a-compliance-strategy-can-mitigate-cyber-threats
🧠 CyberVade Hot Take🌶️: Cybersecurity and Data Privacy is Key in Curaçao’s Hospitality Industry
The Curaçao Tourism sector is red hot 🔥 . Last month (July 2024), Curaçao enjoyed a 16% increase of stayover tourist versus the year before1 and the sector is outperforming pre-COVID numbers, with an expected 40% contribution to 2023 GDP 3 - clearly: Tourism = Important 🚨.
In the 2022-2026 Strategic Tourism Destination Plan2 , the Curaçao Tourism Board (CTB) outlines several key issues that CTB and stakeholders need to consider, amongst which are Digital Transformation and Prioritizing Hospitality. Furthermore, CTB recognizes its mission to “market Curaçao primarily as a unique and safe leisure, and secondarily a business (or bleisure) destination thereby ensuring sustainable benefits to the island”. Additionally, “Digital Nomads” are considered as a Top 5 Travel Segment.
🔍It is our view that Cybersecurity and Data Privacy in the hospitality sector are important attention points when addressing CTB’s key issues. Namely:
🤖 Digital Transformation: as services/products/operations become increasingly digital, the ‘national attack surface’ upon which cyberattacks can take place increases
🛟 Prioritizing Hospitality & Safe Leisure: as a good host country, ensuring safe and enjoyable stays includes making sure that visitors’ data is handled securely and free from breaches that can lead to theft
🧳 Digital Nomads: must be able to ensure safe and reliable access to wifi networks and other digital services
📜 Interestingly, the word “Cyber” is not mentioned even once in the 161-page document, indicating that this issue is perhaps not (yet) top of mind in the sector, at least, it does not appear from the document. Cybercrime can cause far reaching damages, which can include reputation risk, something that we would rather avoid for our well-performing economic pillar.
The hospitality industry manages a lot of sensitive personal data (e.g. bookings, payments) and if an organization becomes victim to a cyber-event, they might be liable for fines, regulatory scrutiny, or loss of reputation, and globally, there have been several high profile data breaches internationally in the hospitality sector that have affected well know hotel chains such as Marriot, Hilton, and Hyatt.
While fines and regulatory scrutiny might be more focused on individual organizations within the industry on the island, reputational damage can affect the island as a whole.
🌶️ Our CyberVade Hot Take?
It’s imperative that within the industry awareness regarding Cybersecurity is high and actions are taken to mitigate any negative effects. Cybersecurity should be high(er) on the industry-agenda and is key to Curaçao’s Hospitality Industry.
🎓 The CIA Triad
Welcome Cybersecurity 101. In this mini MBA series we distill essential cybersecurity knowledge into quick, digestible lessons 🍪 .
Think of it as a crash course in keeping your digital world safe, without the lengthy lectures. Today’s course: CIA Triad.
🛡️ No, not the Central Intelligence Agency. Rather, CIA stands for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. The CIA Triad is a common model that forms the basis for the development of security systems.
Standard | What does it entail? | Guiding Question |
|---|---|---|
Confidentiality | Encryption, Access Controls, ensuring access only for authorized persons | Are we protecting our data from unauthorized access? |
Integrity | Hashing and other techniques, accurate data | Are we ensuring accuracy of the data? |
Availability | Disaster Recovery Plans, Uptime | Are systems and data accessible when needed? |
❗️ Understanding the CIA Triad is vital for aligning cybersecurity efforts with strategic goals and protecting business assets.
🚀 Caetano at Curaçao Tech Meetups!
In "Solution Spotlight” we highlight the CyberVade solutions protecting your data from cyber villains. Each edition introduces a new solution making waves, breaking down its features and benefits. Whether you're a pro or just starting, meet the tech superheroes keeping your digital world safe!
🙏 Today we’re making a bit of a different announcement, namely: our own Caetano is presenting on Data & Privacy at the Biz2Biz session at the Curaçao Tech Meetups! If you’re (part of) an organization on Curaçao, come to the session on September 4 and learn some interesting info on Data & Privacy for your organization.
🚀 Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScCRtdgBusnnyqso2qaSd85OHf-ICjn7vFdk0yKNl-6JW5PhQ/viewform
