London hotel put admin login for booking website on whiteboard behind the front desk
You could check out more than your room
In a recent incident at a London hotel, administrative login details for a booking website were displayed on a whiteboard located behind the front desk, accessible to anyone who passed by. Neycho Tepavicharov, co-founder of Flashcloud, a Delaware-based web hosting company, noticed this security lapse during his stay. The whiteboard displayed a plain English listing of the Booking.com administrative username and password, making it easy for anyone to observe and potentially misuse.
Tepavicharov explained that with this login, an attacker could change or cancel reservations, access guest details, or send fake payment confirmations. He promptly informed the hotel manager about the risk, who was "mortified and very grateful" upon learning of the oversight. The hotel promptly changed its security practices and transferred its website to Tepavicharov's hosting service.
Tepavicharov emphasized the importance of assigning dedicated credentials to each user, implementing multi-factor authentication, and storing passwords in a password manager rather than publicly displaying them.
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