The Department of Justice has charged a dozen mortgage and real estate professionals in a sprawling mortgage fraud scheme that allegedly spanned more than four years and resulted in the approval of more than 100 mortgages based on fabricated documents and phony information.
Cyber News
Cyber threats are evolving every day, keeping up with them is a full-time job. The WESTprotect Cyber News is your source for how these changes affect you in the real estate, title, mortgage, and settlement services industry. From cyber threats to new Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP’s) we’ve got you covered.
More than 200,000 complaints of scams and fraud have been filed so far this year, data from the Federal Trade Commission shows. Americans have lost more than $145 million to fraud related to the coronavirus, according to the Federal Trade Commission, which said it had fielded more than 200,000 complaints from consumers.
Google has updated the stable channel for Chrome to 85.0.4183.121 for Windows, Mac and Linux. This version addresses vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit to take control of an affected system. WESTprotect recommends customers apply the latest patches available to protect from known security risks.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a new security advisory warning the federal agency and the private sector of a surge in the attacks employing the LokiBot malware since July 2020. The Lokibot malware is an infostealer that has been active since 2015. It is involved in many malspam campaigns aimed at harvesting credentials from web browsers, email clients, and admin tools as well as used to target cryptocoin-wallet owners.
Department of Veterans Affairs admitted by press release that 46,000 veterans were victims of an agency data breach while withholding details that fired up some in Congress. The agency’s press release stated, “A preliminary review indicates these unauthorized users gained access to the application to change financial information and divert payments from VA by using social engineering techniques and exploiting authentication protocols.”
While technology has expanded your brand’s reach, it has unfortunately created dangerous liabilities right along with it. Whereas once your data was once more or less safe within a filing cabinet, now all virtual records are at risk of falling into the wrong hands. A data breach can be a backbreaker for any brand. There’s the immediate scramble to stop the bleeding, but well past the initial clean-up, the ripple effects can cripple a company for years.