Skift Travel News Blog

In a further sign of its push into business travel, Sonder has added Michelle Frymire, the former CEO of corporate travel agency CWT, to its board of directors.

The next-generation hospitality company this month also announced it has a chain code, SS, in the Sabre and Amadeus global distribution systems, and earlier this year expanded its sales team to offer corporations negotiated rates and attract groups.

However, months after that expansion it restructured its operations, cutting 21 percent of corporate roles and seven percent of frontline roles, including its chief technology officer.

Frymire has experience on this front too, as during her 12 months at CWT she oversaw its financial restructuring and eventual exit from bankruptcy.

Manon Brouillette, executive vice president and CEO of Verizon Consumer Group, is stepping down from Sonder’s board to focus on her current job at Verizon, the company said.

The Israeli government has seized the computer servers of a tour operator after hackers obtained the personal information of 300,000 people.

According to local reports, the government’s Privacy Protection Authority division took action against Gol Tours Ltd after a cyber attack more than two weeks ago.

Gol Tours operates 20 travel booking websites, including hotel4u.co.il, booking-hotels.co.il and come2israel.com The leaked information includes telephone numbers, addresses, dates and locations of booked vacations, and medical information, the authority said in a statement according to the Times of Israel.

The authority said it contacted the owner of Gol Tours following the hack to address the security flaws, but it did not cooperate. “The required changes were not made,” the authority reportedly said.

The owners rejected the claims, another news website, Channel 12, reported.

Iranian hacker group Sharp Boys was behind the attack, according to local media.

Travel companies have a long history of being subject to ransomware attacks.

In 2020, corporate travel giant CWT paid $4.5 million in ransom to cyber hackers. Some 30,000 computer systems were infected and locked.

On Monday, Reuters reported that the Shanghai police may have been attacked, resulting in a potential data breach affecting one billion Chinese citizens.