Tangible Risk Mitigation Tactics to Thwart Cyberattacks

January 11, 2023

Title and settlement companies report that the volume of cyberattacks have either increased or remained the same last year when compared to 2020. Because of this, title professionals should know essential risk-mitigation processes to protect against wire fraud and other cyber threats.

“There are many things people can take action on immediately to improve their cyber hygiene,” said Andy White, CEO of Closinglock. “You don’t need to be perfect with your cybersecurity, but you want to make sure you’re not the easiest target. Hackers are lazy and they want to go after the easiest path to the money.”

  • Use multi-factor authentication.
  • Do not reuse passwords.
  • Use a password keeper / password generator app.
  • Change the default credentials on all software and devices.
  • Update software regularly.
  • Keep a consistent backup schedule and maintain offline backups.
  • Manage your vendors and business partners to make sure they are doing what you are doing to protect your environment.
  • Turn the firewall ON for all user devices.
  • Use antivirus software on all devices.
  • Don’t click on anything unsolicited in an email or text.
  • Set up an out-of-band protocol for wires and make everyone adhere to it.
  • Have a computer dedicated for accessing your banking/escrow account(s). Do not use this computer for anything else (e.g. social or email).
  • Use email services that provide phishing and pretexting defenses.
  • Use a web browser that warns you when a website may be spoofed. Stop using Internet Explorer.

Brian Freedman, global manager solutions engineering of QOMPLX Inc., said many of these strategies don’t require any investment.

“Companies can leverage existing tools and enable features that are already provided,” he said. “Enabling firewalls at the device level or disabling certain ports you might not need. Allow for auto-updates that include security updates.”


Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or communications@alta.org.

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