Check Point reports travel sector cyber attacks double in three years

Cyber‑security firm Check Point warned that attacks on hospitality, tourism and recreation firms have more than doubled over the past three years. In May, each company in the sector faced an average of 2,291 cyber‑attacks per week – a 24 % rise year‑on‑year – while the global increase across all industries was only about 2 %.

The firm recorded 47,318 new travel‑related domain registrations in May, 33 % more than the previous month and 19 % higher than a year earlier; one in every 112 of these domains was identified as malicious or suspicious. Attackers are increasingly copying major brands such as Booking.com, Airbnb and Skyscanner and using AI to generate convincing localized phishing sites.

Check Point identified three coordinated phishing campaigns: more than 210 domains offering fake hotel bookings, a second set mimicking American Express and travel‑card offers, and a third of 108 domains impersonating the travel company Fora Travel. Additional fake sites targeted Booking, Airbnb and Skyscanner with domain variants like booking‑cn.com or airbnb‑ca.com. Experts stress that automated security tools are becoming essential as visual detection of these scams grows harder.