Imagine you’re a first-time homebuyer who gets an email from your real estate agent or the escrow or title agency. The email instructs you to wire your closing cost money — which sometimes includes your entire down payment — to a bank account, and the style of communication, signature and email address all belong to someone you know and trust.
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The National Association of Realtors has issued a warning to real estate companies, agents and buyers. Cyber criminals are using cloud storage and free email services against you. While it sounds harmless, using common software to steal information is forcing real estate agencies to fix loopholes. These criminals aren’t reckless; they are sophisticated.
I have to admit first; but my 25-year-old son Sammy asked for my advice. He’s a T-Mobile customer. He wanted to know if he should sign up for the two-years-free monitoring service — fraud alert — presently being offered by Experian. I described to him the service ineffectiveness in fighting identity theft, and I recommended he initiate a credit report security freeze instead. Why? Let me explain.
Although Ashley Madison and Target might get all the headlines, more than half of all attacks are against small business owners. We recently sat down with cyber security expert Scott Krawitz to discuss his common sense approach to securing technical systems within the real estate industry. Here’s what we learned.
Cyber risk has become a national conversation as high-profile data breaches at major retailers and banks have forced organizations across multiple industries to take a hard look at their potential vulnerabilities in network security and privacy liability.