Researchers have put big-name travel and booking sites to the test to see how their security practices fare against other online services. If the results are anything to go by, we should all take extra precautions to secure our personal data when booking a flight and a hotel room, or renting a car.
Analyzing the data for its first
Travel Website Password Power Rankings report, password manager developer Dashlane found that 89% of booking sites leave users’ accounts dangerously exposed to bad actors due to unsafe password practices.
The company tested each website on five critical criteria, and ranked each site’s performance on a five-star scoring system. The results were not good, as the chart above shows.
Notably, 96% of travel sites tested did not provide 2FA (two-factor authentication), where the system asks users to validate their identity on a second platform, such as their phone, or service, such as their email.
Most big-name booking and travel agencies, including Booking.com, Hertz, American Airlines and InterContinental Group, scored poorly in areas like two-factor-authentication (2FA), and in assessing password strength when accounts are created.
And cruise company Norwegian Cruise Line flunked on all points of security best practices, receiving zero stars. At the other end of the spectrum lay hospitality service Airbnb, with 5 out of 5 stars.