Whether you’re an international brokerage or a real estate investment trust, Lumifi provides industry-leading managed detection and response cybersecurity services with an emphasis on white-glove service and first-rate results.
Protect your assets from cyber attacks
92 percent of the 100 largest publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) cited cybersecurity as a concern in their annual reports, according to a report from BDO USA LLP.
For brokerages, property management firms, mortgage lenders, and title companies, fraud continues to be a top concern.
Top threats include email scams, ransomware, and IoT smart buildings.
Business Email Compromise (BEC) campaigns are one of the most popular attack vectors. Real estate companies should be aware of emails being sent to appear as executives, vendors, or even clients.
FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported over a 1,000% increase in mortgage-closing wire scams between the years 2015 to 2017, with financial losses totaling over $56 million, according to TechRepublic.
One of the most common scams includes asking an employee to wire funds to a commercial account that appears to be a legitimate vendor.
Additionally, if an organization’s client database is vulnerable, a campaign can be sent to them to wire funds under the organization’s name to an illegitimate account.
Recently, email scams have also been targeting employees and client information by requesting Wage and Tax Statements. This could include Wage and Tax Statement (W-2) forms or Schedule D (Form 1040) for capital gains and losses.
A thorough email security tool is only the first step in securing your organization. Having full network visibility to not only detect but investigate the damage done by a breach is vital. This is accomplished with a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy and having tenured, dedicated security professionals on standby.
REITs and other real estate firms create large volumes of sensitive data. This includes banking information, vendor contracts, and information about upcoming purchases and sales. As such, real estate organizations need to be vigilant for ransomware.
Ransomware is usually spread through email campaigns but can come from opening unsecured links or a malicious download.
Once running, it locks the device and demands money to unlock functionality. Cyber attackers see real estate companies as a valuable target, working with expensive real estate and having time-sensitive deals.
Ensure your network has up-to-date backups available, continuous patching, uses best-in-class SIEM and orchestration tools, and actively hunts for malicious software on your devices.
A unique challenge for real estate companies who manage properties, is the growing trend of “smart buildings”. As technology advances, many real estate firms are managing their portfolio of properties with smart devices so they can control climate, security, and more remotely.
While these IoT devices like smart thermostats, video monitoring, and smart locks are top selling and leasing features for clients, they are also vulnerable to attack.
Lumifi understands every facet of a client’s network, including IoT devices. Our organization has top security engineers to create specific and complex frameworks for data and alerting that turnkey EDR and SIEM solutions do not offer.
You're in the business of managing property, hire one of the most experienced managed security providers. Make sure your company is equipped to protect, handle and recover from a breach. Our team is standing by 24/7/365, ready to help you upgrade your cybersecurity strategy.
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