Cybercriminals are eternally clued in to what’s happening in the world around them. They are eager to exploit the vulnerabilities of individuals and businesses and keenly aware that the possibility of punishment is remote.

The huge growth in the popularity of DIY holidays in recent years, and the online booking platforms that do so much to facilitate them, has inevitably attracted the attention of cyber thieves, who are fast becoming a plague on all our houses – and hotels.

Platforms don’t come much bigger than Booking.com. The Amsterdam-based operator connects travellers with more than 30 million different accommodation options across the world. It has processed about 6.5 billion bookings since 2010 – or more than 2,000 bookings every minute of every day for the past 15 years.

With all that coming and going and money changing hands, it is no surprise that Booking.com has become particularly attractive to the criminally minded.

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Earlier this year it emerged that it suffered a data breach, with “unauthorised parties” gaining access to customers’ details. How many customers were impacted? Booking.com would not say. It did, however, say that no financial details were compromised and it told affected customers that what was compromised “could include booking details and names, emails, addresses, phone numbers associated with the booking and anything that you may have........

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