Information Security

The past 12 months stand as a banner year in the severity of cyberattacks that wreaked havoc on organizations large and small. But in the wake of the chaos, a silver lining has emerged around a never-before-seen level of bipartisan support and genuine interest on Capitol Hill for strengthening the nation's cybersecurity. 

Criminals have deployed a Zelle fraud scam that allows them to infiltrate a peer-to-peer (P2P) payment service used by many financial institutions by circumventing multifactor authentication and accessing a victim’s bank account without knowing the username or password.

You probably use personal identification numbers, passwords or passphrases every day: from getting money from the ATM or using your debit card in a store, to logging in to your email or your company’s VPN. Tracking all the number, letter and special character combinations may be frustrating, but these protections are important because hackers represent a real threat to your information.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona weighed in on the issue whether a professional liability policy provided insurance for a fraudulent wire transfer. This decision is not the first to tackle this issue, and like the other opinions issued across the country, this case demonstrates that the answer to this somewhat thorny question depends heavily on the specific policy wording at issue.

According to a report by cybersecurity researchers at Netscout, there were 5.4 million recorded DDoS attacks during the first half of 2021—a figure that represents an 11% rise compared with the same period last year. 

One ruse that has been particularly persistent is the wire transfer dodge in which cyber-criminals impersonate title firms in trying to steal mortgage payoffs. So much so that the Secret Service recently issued an advisory warning on a “drastic increase” in the scam. ALTA offers a number of resources to help protect against wire fraud and raise awareness about the threat, including a wire preparation checklist, videos, infographic and a rapid response plan for wire fraud incidents.

Authentication and training are important, but why aren’t we thinking about attacking the threat from other angles as well? Read on as Paymints.io CEO Jason Doshi discusses solutions to wire transfer fraud.

More ransomware attacks, poor risk management protocols and lack of employee training resulted in a 25.5% increase in the average premium for cyber insurance coverage, according to a survey from the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers.

The current real estate market has many people making large down payments to get their new home. But a growing real estate scam targeting people in the region nearly snared Allison Boekenoogen. Scammers pose as the title company to try to make you send that down payment into the wrong account, losing both your future home but a fortune in cash.

The U.S. Secret Service issued an advisory warning of a drastic increase in wire transfer fraud related to mortgage payoffs.

Tuesday, June 15, 2021 | 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET | Register Today

Cybercrime continues to grow, especially during the pandemic and the new age of remote work. Join us for this moderated discussion as government officials discuss the latest cyber threats, what agencies are doing to prevent cybercrimes and what the industry can do to help report criminal activity. Register for this RamQuest-sponsored ALTA Insights webinar to hear from the FBI and Secret Service and learn how you can help fend off cyberattacks and protect your customers and business. This presentation will not be recorded for later viewing.

Title insurance professionals reported cyber criminals attempted to trick employees to wire funds to a fraudulent account in a third of all real estate and mortgage transactions, according to ALTA’s 2021 Wire Fraud and Cyber Crime Survey. However, training and education seem to be working as funds were only wired to a fraudulent account in a little over 8% of these attempts.

According to the FBI’s 2020 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 791,790, complaints with reported losses exceeding $4.2 billion last year. Business email compromise (BEC) schemes continued to be the costliest, with 19,369 complaints resulting in losses of $1.8 billion. In regard to real estate, there were 13,638 fraud victims with $213,196,082 in reported losses. 

As a second-time home buyer outside of Denver prepared for the purchase of his new home, he received an email appearing to come from the title company asking him to wire his closing funds early in the transaction. The buyer wired nearly $80,000. Two days later, he was notified that the money did not arrive at the title company. Fortunately, the title company quickly engaged and advised him how to notify the financial institutions involved of the crime.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, the email claims to come from the “Small Business Administration Office of Disaster Assistance,” indicating the recipient is eligible for a loan of up to $250,000 and asks for personal information like birth date and Social Security number.