COLIN MCLEAN ABERTAY UNIVERSITY

It’s hard to say how common this sort of case is in the travel industry, but every day there are at least 1,500 websites hacked.

We are all aware of how burglars work. If we leave the door of our house open at night, we know there’s a risk someone could get in.

But if people leave their websites open, they are maybe not fully aware of what could happen.

Some hackers will run automated scripts which will test for the vulnerability of websites. For example, it might try 100,000 sites and highlight the ones that are vulnerable.

The attackers will then go for those websites. In this case, it sounds like they have found the site of a travel company, spun their story around it and created a domain which sounds slightly similar – such as Travels Bar, instead of Travel Bar – and made their money that way.

Whenever we get VIPs at the university, including people like Jeremy Corbyn, I always advise them to buy a domain name that is very similar to their real one. This is to prevent issues like this happening.

The travel industry isn’t specifically targeted, hackers will simply look for a website they can get into.

I don’t think any industry is more secure than any others, although things like banking, and anything to do with money, should be more aware of the issues.

Writing a website is relatively easy to do these days, but the more complex a website becomes the easier it is to get it wrong.

People often get their website up and running, but they may not fully understand the issues around security.

Users have to update their technology, but they also have to update their awareness of the issues surrounding web security.

And I would advise, for any major website, to get the application tested by one of the many security testing companies that are available.