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When setting up a wireless network for your home or business it is important to secure yourself and those that you may be doing business with.  Store your router is in a safe and secure location you can reduce that ability for anyone to physically tamper with it.  Next ensuring you have forms of authentication in place (Passwords or PINs) will also reduce the possibility for unwanted people on your network.  The addition of firewalls will reroute unwanted users from entering the network, this along with an anti-virus that is designed to prevent, detect and remove mal-ware should keep your system safe.  Another option is adding a guest access, maybe a separate router from the one the business uses, this allows your clients to enjoy the Wi-Fi but keeps them from possible corrupting the business network.

            In 2018 500 million guests of Marriott found out their information had been breached, the breach had been going on for over four years at the time of the announcement.  The guest’s names, addresses, credit card information, pass port numbers, arrival and departure dates, and who they were traveling with was all part of the breach (Telford and Timberg).  At the time it was thought this could have been a nation-state hack aimed at tracking the movements of military members, diplomats, and business officials, this was never confirmed.  The company did later say that they had used encryption on credit card numbers but not the other travel information but could not rule out the possibility some numbers could have been compromised.  Government officials along with the President have called for stricter enforcement of consumer data privacy, and multiple state Attorney Generals have opened investigations into the Marriott breach (Telford and Timberg).

            I would say this is completely on the Marriott corporation, with the money that if funneled through this company daily they have more than enough revenue to provide the best possible level of security.  I am sure they had things in place but clearly somehow the ball was dropped, this was going on for four years.  Companies like this have an obligation to the public to ensure the safety and security of personal information, updates, continuously evaluating the system and running multiple different anti-viruses are just a few things I think could have helped.

References:

Telford, T. and Timberg, C. (November 30, 2018) “Marriott discloses massive data breach affecting up to 500 million guests”. Retrieved from:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/11/30/marriott-discloses-massive-data-breach-impacting-million-guests/?utm_term=.b805954e9b8d (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.