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.
Breach Detection: Top Signs Your Business Has Been Hacked
In 2024, cybersecurity has firmly entrenched itself in the public imagination. It seems like barely a week goes by, for example, without a high-profile data breach. Terms like “hacking,” “malware” and even “multi-factor authentication” have become part of our everyday vernacular. Even extensive security training is now routine at many workplaces.
Yet despite this welcome increase in awareness and understanding, it can still be difficult to know exactly when your network has suffered a breach – which can have serious consequences for your business. That’s because the faster you can detect a malicious incident, the faster you can begin remediation, prevent financial or reputational fallout, and get your agency back on track. Let’s explore what potential breaches can look, feel and sound like. We will also examine steps you can take to respond in the unfortunate event of an incident.
What does a breach look like?
One of the biggest warning signs that something is amiss with your business network is simply unusual activity that you can typically see within your technology or security software. While this can sound like vague advice, it really isn’t when you know what to look for, including:
Strange or unrecognized logins.
Odd purchases made through business accounts.
Unauthorized changes to your account settings.
Unfamiliar devices connecting to your systems or network.
Abnormal spikes in data use or activity.
What does a breach feel like?
The warning signs of a breach are not solely visual. You can also be tipped off by how your network feels and the way your software performs. A cyberattack may result in a dramatic slowdown in performance. There is no universal experience, of course, but some of the common performance problems include:
Slow network speeds or crashing applications.
General connectivity problems.
Inefficient CPU or system memory usage.
Poor customer experience.
What does a breach sound like?
When it comes to network breaches, it may feel a bit odd to talk about warning signs that you can hear. While your technology systems aren’t typically going to tip you off this way, your agency’s human stakeholders might. Keep your ears open for feedback from those who interact with your digital assets and infrastructure. Their thoughts, feelings and experiences may prove crucial to discovering a breach and taking corrective action. Some comments that you need to take very seriously are:
Reports of increased phishing attempts or other suspicious emails.
Complaints from customers about using your digital assets.
Increased IT support desk tickets, depending on if you have managed security in place.
Occasionally, albeit rarely, compromised devices can also emit auditory signals that suggest something has gone wrong.
A four-point plan to respond to breaches
If you notice these abnormal activities, don’t brush them off! Instead, take the following four actions to contain the potential damage and reestablish your security perimeter.
First: Secure your compromised accounts, which can involve switching passwords and establishing multi-factor authentication if you don’t have it in place already. You should also disable affected accounts, notify all affected stakeholders, and begin preserving evidence of what has occurred.
Second: Focus next on investigating the malicious activity. Develop an overview of the incident by assessing the “who,” “what,” “when,” and “where” of the network breach. The purpose of this exercise is two-fold: You want to determine the scope of the problem while also determining the root causes so you can ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Third: Build a plan to improve the long-term security of your IT systems and to prevent similar breaches. Conduct a comprehensive review of your vulnerabilities. Implement stronger access controls, encryption protocols and cybersecurity approaches. Finally, update training programs to keep employees apprised of security changes and reinforce security standards across your organization.
Fourth: Don’t forget to adhere to all relevant standards and requirements regarding data breach notification. Then, conduct a review of your compliance obligations to ensure you are taking appropriate due diligence and properly protecting sensitive personal information.
A thrilling yet threatening business era
Seven decades into the information age, more people than ever are aware of both the promise and the perils of using digital systems in both life and work. Yet while cybersecurity awareness has never been more widespread than it is today, some of the common signs and symptoms of a data breach are not that widely known. Learning more about them and keeping your co-workers and team apprised is a great way to sharpen your defenses and respond decisively should the need arise.
