Hackers lock guests in hotel room until Bitcoin ransom was paid

A team of hackers breached the security system of a 4-star hotel in Austria, locking every guest’s door from the outside. For the doors to be unlocked, the hotel was forced to pay a ransom in Bitcoin.

The Seehotel Jagerwirt hotel in Austria with rooms for $300 per night was hit with three cyberattacks in the past, but this one became ultimately scarier when the hackers took control of the electronic key system. Additionally, the hotel’s computer system and payment systems were compromised. The guests were unable to get into their rooms for an extensive period of time, and the hotel had to pay approximately $1,600 to get the rooms unlocked.

“The house was totally booked with 180 guests; we had no other choice. Neither police nor insurance help you in this case,” Christoph Brandstaetter, the hotel’s managing director, said.

Once the money was transferred, the systems were back up again. The hotel reported that the hackers left a backdoor that allowed them back into the systems again. In an effort to quickly act, the hotel not only replaced its existing systems, but also delinked computers to avoid critical services going down in a future attack. 

After the hackers had received payment, they tried to breach the hotel again. The last attempt failed because the hotel implemented stronger security practices.

“We are planning at the next room refurbishment for old-fashioned door locks with real keys. Just like 111 years ago at the time of our great-grandfathers,” the hotel manager said.

To prevent future attacks, the Seehotel Jagerwirt could adopt a method called micro-segmentation, one that treats every system on the network as a potential threat. No system is given a complete trust. Rather, systems are only granted access to needed resources in order to perform their functions. This makes it easier to lock information down when a hack is detected, minimizing the damage done and keeping service interruptions small.

As hotel systems become more connected in an effort to cater to tech-savvy guests, the risk of similar incidents occurring will only increase.

Source: Gizmodo