Mortgage lenders and their clients/vendors are very susceptible to digital security breaches because of the large amount of data that is transferred between the different parties involved. Cyber criminals are also especially interested in this data because it usually contains information they need for identity theft.
“It’s more of an attractive target by its very nature because the application for a mortgage loan digs deeper into a person’s financial life than any other application,” states Mary Beth Guard, executive editor of BankersOnline.com and BankingQuestions.com. “If cyber thieves can access a treasure trove of mortgage applications, they have everything they need for an identity theft.”
According to Bill Wansley, senior vice president at security consultant Booz Allen Hamilton, there are three major groups of cyber criminals that are interested in the information for different reasons:
- “Hackivists” – This group mainly aims to embarrass companies
- Organized crime factions – Groups that steal data for identity theft and other profit-generating ventures.
- Foreign nationals – Individuals or groups that use the stolen data as a means to steal corporate intellectual property to make potential investment decisions
Even though reports of cyber theft are increasing, not all incidents actually get reported, especially those involving smaller firms. While large banks are investing significant amounts into cybersecurity, smaller companies aren’t putting the money they need to for the proper protection. “You just don’t see small institutions reporting a breach,” Wansley said. “There’s probably not an institution out there that hasn’t been penetrated.”
Asset Valuation & Marketing takes the information security of its clients extremely seriously, and has a sophisticated security program that protects the information of our clients and has not failed since its implementation. Our security solution offers two levels of security – infrastructure level and application level.
Infrastructure-level security is set up to prevent direct access to servers, business logic, and raw data. Application-level security implements group-level access privileges to provide controlled access to authenticated users. All data stays secured behind a firewall at a Tier IV data-center and is accessible only to authenticated users from AVM, respective banks’ employees and investors, and realtors.
Our data is only physically accessible to authorized users, and restricts unauthorized access to any part of the infrastructure and is protected from accidental damage such as extreme temperatures, fire, electrical surges, etc.
Asset Valuation and Marketing has been providing the highest quality valuation products and services since 1995. Our products and services include residential broker price opinions (BPOs), property inspection reports, small balance commercial valuations, and automated valuation models.
To read the full article on cybersecurity which is the source of the non-AVM security information discussed in this week’s article, please visit: http://www.mortgageorb.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.11122