Use this year’s spooky season to assess your strategies and ward off the specter of cybercrime.
For many people, October is associated with ghosts, goblins, tricks and treats. But for those involved in IT, it represents something equally scary: the unpredictable cybersecurity landscape facing businesses today. You see, October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and it’s the perfect time for title agencies to reassess their digital defense strategy. Let’s review some top priorities and best practices to ensure your strategy is working as efficiently as possible.
The undeniable importance of cybersecurity in title insurance
Title agencies are no strangers to handling large amounts of sensitive and personal information, as collecting and transmitting data is key to any successful real estate transaction. However, it can be challenging to know which aspect of your security to focus on, especially with so much information out there about threats, breaches, and solutions. Cutting through this noise requires a careful strategy that aligns with your agency’s specific needs, goals, and risks. For title agencies, this means focusing on solutions that protect sensitive client information, prevent wire fraud and ensure compliance. Let’s dive deeper into how you can ensure you achieve each of these priorities.
Investing in data protection
Achieving comprehensive data protection means examining and securing potential attack vectors. Let’s take email as an example. Email is one of the top ways in which cyber criminals exploit a business’s defenses and breach critical systems, especially in the real estate industry. Techniques like multi-factor authentication, encryption, mail filters and domain-based message authentication are all non-negotiable if you want to keep your people and agency safe. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. One of the main ways that attackers harm businesses is through human error, which means that any technology solutions you implement must also be paired with security awareness training. These programs are invaluable for training team members on how they can spot suspicious or dangerous email activity and take action to keep systems and data safe.
Protect against wire fraud
Easily one of the most well-known cyberthreats to title agencies is the scourge of wire fraud. Fraudsters frequently target transactions by intercepting wire instructions and diverting funds into their accounts, often with devastating consequences for both title agents and consumers. While encrypted communication channels and stringent verification methods — such as multi-factor authentication and verbal confirmations — are critical to combating this threat, comprehensive verification solutions are equally essential. SecureMyTransaction, developed by Alliant National, is one such solution. It helps agents verify transaction participants and performs both bank account and business verifications. By integrating solutions like this alongside educating clients on best practices, you can significantly reduce the risk of human error and safeguard your transactions.
Don’t forget compliance
Closely connected to agency security is the issue of regulatory compliance. Agencies are subject to many industry standards and requirements. You must always be mindful of whether your cybersecurity strategies are in alignment with these obligations. Routine audits of your security practices and activities can provide greater visibility and ensure ongoing compliance, which is essential to avoiding fines. I can’t stress enough how important it is to be proactive rather than reactive with this aspect of your security. Your company’s very reputation hinges on it!
Stay safe during Cybersecurity Awareness Month and beyond
When October comes around each year, there is always a lot to look forward to. The weather is cooler, the air crisper. Jack-o’-lanterns begin showing up on doorsteps. And everywhere leaves are bursting into color. While digging into your cybersecurity strategy may not sound as fun, October’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a great moment to stop, reflect and recalibrate for a successful year ahead. By taking a hard look at how your agency is handling data protection, wire fraud and regulatory compliance, you can reduce your risk and move into the final stages of the year with greater confidence in your agency’s security. You may still have ghosts, goblins and even mischievous trick-or-treaters to deal with, but at the very least, you’ll know you’ve taken steps to keep cybercriminals at bay.
As any seasoned title insurance professional will tell you, real estate transactions are complex beasts, requiring different stakeholders to share personal information sometimes across great distances. This presents massive challenges, especially at a time when data breaches seem more common than ever. What can an independent agent do to protect personal and proprietary information? Technologies like client-side encryption (CSE) offer a possible way forward. CSE can reduce your attack surface and limit liability by centralizing key management and strengthening access controls. Let’s see how it can help secure your agency from the threats of both today and tomorrow.
What is client-side encryption?
You have likely heard about encryption and perhaps even use such technology at your agency. After all, encryption technologies have been in place across multiple industries for decades. CSE is a more recent innovation. It offers users greater control over when and where their data is encrypted, and over who can decrypt this information.
How does it differ from traditional encryption?
CSE technology differs from traditional methods of encryption in two key aspects: where the actual encryption occurs and who controls the encryption keys. When using CSE, data is usually encrypted on a user’s local device before being sent to a server or shared over a cloud network. Access to this data is similarly held by the user, which means that the data remains completely inaccessible to a service or network provider.
How CSE can benefit your agency
There are clear security implications for your agency when you choose to implement CSE. CSE can help strengthen defenses against data breaches and other criminal activity. When equipped with this technology, agencies are freed from relying on third-party providers to manage security keys. Even if your network or service provider goes down or is compromised in some way, your data will remain safe and secure. Additionally, CSE gives companies greater control over who can decrypt their data, allowing them to align access permissions with organizational policies or user roles.
For highly regulated businesses like title insurance, CSE may be particularly advantageous. Title agencies are required to meet various compliance obligations, which include taking steps to ensure consumer security and privacy. CSE can directly help with these requirements.
Be future-ready with CSE
CSE doesn’t just have immediate benefits; it can also help your agency prepare for future challenges. For example, data protection laws are expanding throughout the world and the United States, imposing ever-more-stringent regulations on how businesses operate online. Data sovereignty laws are similarly growing, mandating that organizational data stay within a specific geographical location. Lastly, the rise of AI and quantum computing is upending many current encryption methodologies.
CSE holds great promise for agencies looking to navigate these seismic changes. It can ensure data is immediately encrypted at the source where it is created, thus satisfying key data protection provisions. It can empower companies to maintain control over encryption keys and not rely on providers who may be hundreds of miles away. And it provides enhanced security that can help agencies use AI safely while preparing for the next wave of cryptography advances.
Consider CSE for your encryption needs For title businesses, protecting sensitive organizational and customer data is non-negotiable. Encryption has long been the go-to method for accomplishing this goal, but traditional technologies may be insufficient for the changing digital environment. Client-side encryption offers potential advantages by encrypting data right at the source and ensuring that access is strictly maintained. Companies that adopt it no longer need to rely on third parties, can more easily comply with regulations, and are better prepared to leverage emerging technologies. In a competitive business environment like ours, those are benefits worth considering.
Some say the only constant in life is change. When it comes to real estate transactions, it seems there is one other constant: the potential for fraud. Given how widespread and persistent this problem is, title agencies can’t leave any stone unturned when it comes to fraud prevention. They must take a hard look at their operations to understand where they might be vulnerable, and that includes their IT stack. Let’s review how you can make sure your technology systems benefit your anti-fraud efforts.
The pros and cons of a connected world
Our ever-digitalizing world has led to unprecedented productivity gains. Yet, it has also paradoxically made key processes like fraud prevention more difficult to manage. Several factors contribute to this. For one thing, modern title agencies have many more attack vectors than they once did. For another, modern criminals have adopted advanced methods to carry out their schemes, such as phishing, e-signature exploitation and synthetic identities. These threats make it more important than ever to ensure your tech stack is built to deter fraud.
Multi-factor authentication
One of the best ways to prevent fraud with your tech stack is through a simple and straightforward technique: Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a security mechanism with which you are likely already familiar. In fact, I would be willing to bet you have an entire text chain made up of confirmation codes for various online accounts. MFA offers a critical layer of security by requiring an extra sign-in step for sensitive digital platforms.
When your systems are equipped with MFA, bad actors will be unable to authenticate themselves, even if they have the correct login credentials. New advances like dynamic MFA further harden your security perimeter by verifying that stakeholders are located where they say they are.
Here are some important best practices when using MFA:
Implement and require MFA on all systems that deal with client, financial and/or property data.
Also, require it for mission-critical transactions or changes to any important system settings.
Remember, MFA is not a set-it-and-forget-it scenario. Staff must be continually educated, and new MFA technology updates should be implemented as soon as they become available.
Establish comprehensive encryption
Beyond MFA, there are several other ways to create a more secure tech stack. One of the most important is encryption. Utilizing strong encryption is a proven security method that serves as a protective barrier between your company’s mission-critical data and unauthorized user access. To maximize its benefits, sensitive files should be encrypted when they are both “at rest” and “in transit.” Here’s what that means:
Data “at rest”: Data that is “at rest” simply means data that is stored in a single location. This can include both physical locations like hard drives or USBs and digital ones like cloud storage servers or databases.
Data “in transit”: Data that is “in transit” refers to data that is moving from one device or storage location to another. Some examples include, but are not limited to, emails, file transfers, instant messages, video calls, online transactions, or VoIP.
Encryption brings significant security benefits in each scenario. When data is at rest, encryption ensures that it remains unreadable even if the physical or digital location is compromised. Similarly, encrypted data in transit cannot be intercepted or used for nefarious purposes without the interceptor possessing the decryption key.
There are several best practices to consider when implementing encryption:
Use strong encryption algorithms like the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
Properly secure your decryption keys.
Encrypt both active and backup files.
Deploy encrypted communication methods, particularly when communicating with parties outside of your network.
Conduct regular audits and training to ensure compliance with industry regulations and standards.
Other security measures you need to know
While MFA and encryption are two important pieces of your security puzzle, they are also just the tip of the iceberg if you want a security stack that can truly keep fraudsters at bay. Creating a “cybersecure culture,” putting together a disaster recovery plan and availing yourself of new security solutions like endpoint threat detection are all important parts of a comprehensive security approach.
Final thoughts Ever-increasing digitalization in the workplace has been both a blessing and a curse. Each new gain in productivity and profitability has also brought new concerns about security and stability. Yet, we are not without options. While it’s impossible to make tech stacks completely immune from fraud, strategies like MFA and encryption can help you enjoy more of technology’s advantages while minimizing its risks.
SecureMyTransaction from Alliant National is reshaping fraud prevention in real estate. Listen in as Alliant National Risk Management and Data Privacy Officer Tom Weyant, and Jerome Magana with Select Specialty Insurance, discuss how cutting-edge technologies and business insurance coverages work together to help you safeguard transactions, protect clients, and preserve your business.
VP, Risk Management and Data Privacy Officer CQA, CFE American Society for Quality (ASQ®) Member Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE®) Member d: 303.682.9800 x530 | c: 720.534.6235 e: tweyant@alliantnational.com
It will come as no surprise when I say that we live in an increasingly perilous world. Fraud, cybercrime and natural disasters are all on the rise, and businesses must use all available means to safeguard IT infrastructure and data. Yet merely running data backups is just one of many steps you should take to ensure business continuity in the face of calamity. Title agencies should also strongly consider a disaster recovery plan. Although it’s no silver bullet, creating a comprehensive plan allows you to rest easier if a worst-case scenario arrives. Let’s look at what it entails.
Disaster recovery versus incident response
First, what is disaster recovery and how does it differ from something like incident response? While both are designed to respond to IT disruption, there are crucial differences between the two processes:
Scope: Disaster recovery plans typically deal with larger and more systemic IT problems than those addressed by incident response. They tackle major issues like full-scale IT restoration in the event of major catastrophes like floods, hardware failures or cyberattacks. Incident response, on the other hand, is geared toward dealing with individual IT incidents on a one-off or as-needed basis.
Time span and focuses: Disaster recovery plans are more concerned with longer-term recovery processes than incident response. Think days or weeks versus minutes or hours. The two processes also have different focuses. Incident response is preoccupied with swift remediation of IT incidents, while disaster recovery can include data backups, ensuring continuity and even establishing alternative work sites.
The core principles of disaster recovery
Now that we’ve explored what disaster recovery is, let’s look at what goes into building a plan that ensures continuity, prevents lasting damage and accelerates system restoration. A comprehensive plan should include the following pillars:
Introduction: Sketch out your goals for disaster recovery and the objectives you will need to hit to support each goal.
Business Analysis: Next, detail your agency’s threats and vulnerabilities, as well as their potential business impact.
Recovery Processes: Include step-by-step instructions for how systems will be restored. Include who needs to be involved in these activities, as well as their roles and responsibilities.
Data Recovery: List out all organizational policies regarding the recovery of mission critical data. These steps should involve backup procedures, in addition to off-site storage locations.
Alternative Worksites and Communication Plans: Outline how your team will continue to function in the event of having to abandon your typical worksite. Include information about alternative work locations and communication methods.
Testing and Compliance: Determine how you will test your plan prior to a disaster taking place. Ensure that all policies are compliant with relevant industry regulations.
Implementing your plan
Once you finalize your disaster recovery plan, don’t let it gather dust. Gain necessary reviews and approvals. Distribute the plan to relevant personnel and store it in an accessible location. Conduct training on specific software and data practices, and finally, test for flaws and iterate for continuous improvement.
Protect your IT suite through thick and thin
Creating a strong disaster recovery plan can take a bit of work up-front, but it pays off big time in a worst-case scenario. More comprehensive than incidence response, disaster recovery includes steps for restoring systems and maintaining business continuity even during a catastrophic event. While nothing can fully eliminate IT risk, disaster recovery plans can help your firm roll with the punches of today’s threat landscape and keep moving forward.