Real estate cyber liability is on the rise because realtors are lucrative and easy prey for cybercriminals due to sensitive financial information. According to the FIA, from 2018 to 2020, real estate cyber-crimes increased 35%, which is an alarming figure.
There is a high risk associated with cybercrime in every profession storing sensitive information. Agents frequently have client pre-approval letters, loan requirements, proof of funds, and the ability to conduct high-value wire transfers, which makes them attractive to hackers. Cybercriminals are the most interested in this financial information due to its sensitive nature.
On the other hand, the consequences of real estate cyber liability are worse. You not only lose your massive database, your client’s trust but also incur serious monetary loss and lawsuits. Therefore, real estate agents should be fully aware and vigilant of cyber threats and take proactive measures to prevent cyber liability.
Here we shall highlight some of the vulnerabilities of real estate agents and their remedies.
Email Wired Instruction Cyber Liability
Cyber liability in the real estate industry is the most common and most damaging. According to the American Land Title Association, cybercriminals targeted one-third of wire transfer instructions in 2021. Emails of title agents were hacked. If an email is compromised, hackers have full access to everything within that email. A client is tricked into paying via wired instructions just as the deal closes.
Realtors are easy victims of this email-wired scam due to multiple reasons. First, they use non-encrypted less safe email services such as Gmail, Microsoft AOL, or Yahoo mails. These free email services are good for day-to-day affairs but definitely not safe for high-value transactions. The good practice is to use those services that encrypt the communication.
Second, their business email and personal information are easily available online. This serves as a starting point for the hackers. They send malware links to the realtor emails which real estate agents often click and get compromised. But they don’t know about it until the deed is committed. Therefore, good practice should be to take the client from publicly available business email to some safer communication platform once you onboard him.
Ransomware Attacks
Ransomware attacks are another threat realtors face. Ransomware poses a threat to your computer or laptop by installing an unwanted program that steals or hostages your data. These hackers will often demand ransom for the release of the data. Usually, this kind of cyberattack occurs when you download software from a suspicious site or click on a suspicious link in an email. Additionally, you may experience this problem if your software is not updated to the latest version.
Therefore, you should make a habit of not downloading any suspicious or illegal software. You should also install some security software such as Avast.
Password Theft
Another huge vulnerability is the weak passwords. Sometimes the passwords are easily decoded and hackers get access to your devices. They might use your business email to hack your passwords and websites. Another problem is that some realtors use the same email and password for all their accounts. If one of the accounts is compromised, you lose everything.
In order to prevent this, you should never use easy passwords that can be guessed. Make sure the passwords you use for your computers and laptops are tough to crack. You should not set up your website logins and computers with publicly available email addresses. Multi-step authentication should also be enabled for all your devices.
Selling Your Old Devices
Sometimes a realtor might sell old office devices such as computers, smartphones, or IoT devices. Most people delete their data before making any such decision. However, they don’t know that this data can still be recovered and used due to a lack of technical know-how. Therefore, you need to properly wipe out your data so it cannot be recovered.
Phishing Scam
Real Estate agents are at great risk from this scam. This scam employs social engineering and psychology to trap realtors or employees. A hacker may approach you via email as a new customer or approach Microsoft or Facebook for a login setup. In certain instances, hackers come to the company’s employees as bosses and urgent data. And employs not realizing the trap, often leaks the data.
Cyber Liability Insurance
Lastly, it would help if you also got Cyber Liability insurance. We have seen even the tech giants like Microsoft Exchange Server have been compromised in 2021, so small businesses can be no exception. Therefore, real estate cyber liability insurance is a must for futureproofing and safety.
Cyber liability insurance covers all aspects such as data recovery, lawsuit handling, and reputation management.
About IPRO Agency Insurance Services
IPRO Agency Insurance Services is a specialty insurance brokerage with the expertise to protect your firm, assets and to help you retain clients. Our services offer all types of professionals the protection they need so they can stay committed to their work with ease. We are connected with leading insurers to bring you the best coverage for your unique needs and areas of risk. Get in touch with us at 888- 673-8039 so we can begin to safeguard your success.
