Hospitality workers' awareness and training about the risks of online crime and the occurrence of cyberattacks

Abstract

With the development of new technologies, cyber security risks have become a matter of great concern among hospitality managers. This work studies the relationship between hospitality workers' awareness and training about the risks of cybercrime on one hand, and the number of cyberattacks suffered by firms on the other. Using representative data for EU-27 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in 2021, we show that hospitality firms whose workers are not properly aware of cyber risks are victim of more security breaches. However, current formal training practices are not being successful at decreasing the attacks suffered. Moreover, cybercrimes are positively associated with the use of personal devices and firms’ degree of digitalization. Our findings have important implications for hospitality management, suggesting that (i) better ICT training is needed to decrease the likelihood of suffering cyberattacks, and (ii) the use of personal devices at work is a commonly neglected risk factor.