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Hotel's Smart Locks Hijacked, Ransom Demanded
- Fortune, Monday, January 30, 2017 9:53 AM
A resort hotel in Austria has been the target of a series of hacks, including one that crippled the electronic “smart locks” on guest rooms. The attack prevented guests from accessing their rooms and prevented the issuance of new key cards, highlighting the potential fragility of systems in the so-called “internet of things.” Lacking other options, the four-star Seehotel Jägerwirt paid the hackers a modest ransom in Bitcoin to reactivate their systems. In a followup statement to Bleeping Computer, the hotel’s Managing Director Christoph Brandstätter emphasized that no guests were locked into their rooms, because international fire codes mandate that electronic hotel locks must open from the inside even in the event of system failure.
