Latin America. The travel and tourism opportunity market in the region is estimated at $52.18 billion in 2024 and is forecast to reach $67.91 billion in 2029.
Oswaldo Palacios, Senior Account Executive at Akamai, highlighted the growth of online channels as a favorite means for Latin American consumers to purchase or book travel-related services, arguing that the possibility of comparing hundreds of options in an instant from the comfort of any place is one of the factors that justify the phenomenon.
"While APIs optimize communication and foster innovation through third-party integration, they also expose businesses to increased risk of cyber threats. Cyberattacks targeting APIs have skyrocketed and exploit vulnerabilities to compromise sensitive data and disrupt critical services," said Oswaldo Palacios, who also referred to the fact that e-commerce was the victim of the highest number of attacks on API and Web applications (164,000 million), according to Akamai's SOTI 2023 report. How to Navigate Security Gaps: The Rise of App and API Attacks.
The tourism industry manages huge amounts of customer data. As a result, cyberattacks on APIs can compromise such information, leading to identity theft, fraud, and privacy breaches. It is particularly sensitive to threats such as website cloning and phishing campaigns, credit card fraud, identity theft, and not least the risk of DarkHotel malware, where malicious code is uploaded to the hotel's servers and attackers can target specific users who are guests.
Oswaldo Palacios highlighted that prioritizing attack detection through solutions with real-time analytics allows the tourism sector to map relationships with users due to the ability of API security to present large amounts of information about API activity and threats. Only with
All the information in hand is possible to involve all relevant parties to solve any problem and win the war against cybercriminals.
He added that it is essential for organizations to remain vigilant and proactive in safeguarding sensitive information. By implementing robust cybersecurity measures, hotels can ensure the trust of their guests while mitigating potential threats to their operations and those of their guests.
business partners. He recommended that the tourism sector continue with these five practices for the safe use of APIs:
- Document APIs to improve visibility. Stay abreast of emerging threats.
- Resolve misconfiguration issues in APIs and implement processes to prevent future vulnerabilities from arising.
- Establish an API monitoring and threat hunting discipline to close security gaps before attackers can use them against you.
- Choose a security solution that can mitigate a wide range of threats, from the top 10 API security risks according to OWASP to traditional web attacks.
- Use security solutions that provide behavioral analytics to detect business logic misuse and other anomalies.
Finally, Oswaldo Palacios cited that the World Tourism Organization forecasts that Latin America will receive 78.2 million tourists by 2027, generating 82 billion dollars for the local economy, hence the implementation of tailor-made solutions aimed at safeguarding the numerous API integrations within the tourism industry is relevant. This includes securing both the internal business intelligence system and the expanding network of external APIs with industry partners, such as major travel and booking websites, online travel agencies, as well as smaller suppliers and agents.
