Hospitality & Gaming

Overview

Resorts, casinos, and hotels base their brand and public image on the concepts of entertainment, luxury, and escapism. The last thing a patron wants to consider is what is happening with all their data being created, used, and stored each day. All the while, that is a top concern for these companies. Falling into the wrong hands – whether a competitor’s or cyber criminal’s – data such as player gaming behavior, payment card information, loyalty reward programs, building blueprints, marketing strategies can lead to significant damages, including lost business to competitors, fines, reputational damage, and more.

The hospitality and gaming industry faces significant cybersecurity challenges due to the high volume of sensitive data they process each day. The industry is at the unique intersection of hospitality, gaming, food & beverage, real estate, conference centers, spas, sporting events, online gambling, and more, making them more vulnerable than other industries. With that broad market coverage, comes countless valuable data, leading to strict regulations, privacy laws, and oversight. However, adhering to these requirements, while minimizing friction for staff, has been a challenge as there has been a growing number of hotel data breaches over the past decade, affecting multinational corporations to single properties.

Situation & Challenge

A world-class resort & casino was facing a challenge in developing a method of securely distributing business-critical documents including financial operating reports, high value customer lists, and vendor contracts. Every day, they manage large amounts of high value data in different regions globally with highly sensitive data regularly flowing between locations.

Protecting this data is top priority, while also making it easy for authorized business leaders to access this critical information with minimal effort. Ensuring workers couldn’t take screenshots, print documents, or forward the reports to others (or their personal accounts) were some driving factors in needing a more robust solution. Previous approaches to lock down data proved ineffective as once a file was shared, there was no ability to modify or recall file permissions, and functionality was limited to still allow screenshots and out-of-band forwarding. At the same time, there was little insight or visibility into where the files are going with a lack of tracking for auditing purposes.

Solution

Using Keyavi, the resort replaced their previous limited-scope technology, now allowing them to meet confidentiality requirements, while offering a simple-to-use solution for executives and business leaders. Keyavi provided a solution that enabled real time policy-based data access control in perpetuity, supported by industry-leading encryption.

As the resort’s daily reports were generated, protection was automatically applied using Keyavi’s Intelligent Directory service and sent through custom automation that existed within the company’s network, easing the burden on IT. Keyavi users were provided with multiple methods to access the file using Keyavi via Windows, Mac, Web-based, and mobile applications, allowing seamless integration into their workflows. The reports were then trusted to flow between staff at properties around the world with confidence that only authorized users, in authorized locations, time windows, and more were able to access the contents.

The risk of insider threat, where workers may attempt to copy or share the files with others or their own personal accounts, and otherwise misuse is significantly reduced. Access was restricted solely to those authorized and within the confines of the policies (such as geolocation and time-window) set by the administrators.

Using Keyavi’s read-only mode for protection, the files are protected from screenshots, screensharing, copying, and sharing with others, providing the oversight that the resort requires. The threat of the data being exposed to any external threat actors during a breach is also mitigated.

Using Keyavi, the resort revolutionized their approach to data protection by infusing the protection directly into the data itself. From protecting brand and reputation to customer and competitive information, Keyavi allows for peace of mind that data is protected and controlled forever, allowing the industry to focus on the high-quality experience and services they provide their patrons.