I know of a Hyatt hotel which has high-speed internet access through a router which has been configured (or, most likely, left at its default) to give automatic admin access to anyone who accesses it ... from anywhere on the internet!

I hope that this isn't the usual way Hyatts set up their high-speed internet connections, otherwise there are rather large security risks. I imagine that if someone were to remotely reconfigure it to use different IP addresses, the real administrators would just be rather confused. However, if someone were to reprogram the flash EPROM in the router, anything would be possible.

For those who don't understand the ramifications of what I just wrote: anyone, anywhere on the net, could reconfigure the piece of equipment which provides that Hyatt's high-speed net access. Someone with enough knowledge could totally reprogram it to not work at all or to do additional things, such as log all data transmitted, for example.

I suspect that if I emailed Hyatt about this, their reservations, etc, people would have absolutely no idea how to deal with it or even understand it. Do any of you have suggestions or know any Hyatt lurkers?