Your biggest security risk is often a tired employee

The Real Weak Spot Is People, Not Software

You can have the best firewall in Belgium, but it won't help if a receptionist clicks a fake "Booking.com payment problem" email at 7 PM during a busy check-in. Many security incidents at small businesses start with human error: a click, a reused password, or a phone call from someone pretending to be the boss.

The good news: a few habits and settings reduce this risk, and most of them cost little or nothing.

What Hotels and SMEs Actually Get Hit With

The attacks aimed at hospitality and local businesses are rarely sophisticated. They are simple and repetitive:

• Fake OTA emails: "Your Booking.com account will be suspended — confirm your card details now."
• Invoice fraud: A supplier's email is spoofed and the bank number is changed.
• CEO fraud: "Hi, it's the manager — can you quickly transfer this? I'm in a meeting."
• Wi-Fi password phishing: Guests or staff tricked into entering credentials on a lookalike page.

Each one relies on a busy person not pausing for three seconds.

What a Cyber Awareness Program Looks Like

This is training, not hacking. Our Cyber Awareness Program is built around teaching your team to spot trouble before it costs money.

1. A Safe Phishing Simulation

With your written permission, and after your staff have been told that test emails will arrive at some point, we send realistic but harmless fake phishing emails. You receive results for the team as a whole, never a list of names, and nobody is sanctioned for a click. Anyone who clicks lands on a friendly page. The page explains the warning signs right after the click, and the live session afterwards repeats them.

2. A Live Demo Session

We show the team, in plain language, how a real scam is built: how easy it is to fake a sender name, copy a logo, or clone a login page. Seeing how the trick is built makes it easier to recognise next time.

3. Simple, Memorable Rules

No jargon. Just habits like: pause before clicking links, verify money requests by phone, and never reuse the front-desk password.

Quick Wins You Can Start This Week

• Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) for email and your booking system.
• Agree on one rule: any payment change gets confirmed by a phone call.
• Tell staff that reporting a mistake is always rewarded, never punished.

The Bottom Line

A single avoided scam can save real money and protect your guests' data and your reputation. Awareness training works best alongside MFA and a call-back rule for payment changes, which stop many attacks that training alone does not. Our security awareness & hacking demo service covers the training part.

Wondering whether a one-off course or a simulation works better? Read phishing simulation versus a training course, or get in touch to plan a session for your team.