Private Clubs and Cyber Security

We are living in unprecedented times. I don’t know about you, but the club world has changed dramatically over the past 10, 20 or 25 years.

Has any Club Manager, Chief Operating Officer or Clubhouse Manager ever thought as to what to say to his/her board, to the membership or to the club’s ownership, if you are privately held facility, on the day the club’s website experienced an attack? Let me tell you, it will make the headlines.

Cybersecurity is no longer an IT problem, but rather a problem of what to say to your members and customers once your best practices are breached. It really does not matter as to how big or small the organization is, yet it goes without saying that it is a management’s fiduciary responsibility to protect members’ and customers’ information and to strive to update security protocols in order to keep that information secure.

I am really impressed by the technology of a new company called, Blind Hash. Let’s be honest, the club industry is a “lagger” when it comes to IT, and it has been a “lagger” in providing the same protections as offered to other industries when it comes to cyber security. This is not a sales pitch, but a wake-up call to the industry. I have recently installed this patented password security technology, as with 5000 family memberships in our system, it was a “no-brainer” for us. We are all told not to use the same password at multiple sites, but we know that our members will use a familiar password over and over again, if they can. So, we needed to protect our members. The installation was simple and our members were not required to take action. I have received numerous e-mails after the install, thanking our organization for being proactive. Today, I can say to our members, board or ownership partners, that when a breach occurs, our members’ password was not compromised from an offline attack. It did not happen on our site.

Christian