We know technology is constantly evolving and that cybertheft continues to evolve with it, but are we seeing a major shift in the way cyberthieves carry out their business? Tom Cronkright, owner and CEO of Sun Title, has definitely noticed a shift and will share his insights at a session at the upcoming National Settlement Services Summit (NS3).
“I think what we are seeing is that those that are perpetrating these frauds have figured out the real estate industry at a very intimate level, down to parties and timing and just how it works and flows,” Cronkright said. “Rather than trying to hack into your secure networks, they are just tricking people.
“They’ve found the easiest and most direct path to payment,” he continued. “They’ve moved from ‘I’m going to hack your server’ to ‘I’m going to trick your buyer, seller, escrow officer or agent, whoever it happens to be,’ and I think that puts us into a different dimension of what we are seeing.”
He will be speaking on cybersecurity in a presentation with Dama Brown, regional director, Federal Trade Commission, on June 8 at the 2017 National Settlement Services Summit in San Antonio, Texas.
The session, “Cybersecurity: Based on a true story,” will share both Cronkright’s first-hand experience with cybertheft and Brown’s recommendations to help protect from the ever-changing threats.
He said the industry has been in an inflection point because fraudsters have figured out how to obtain information and use social engineering to influence someone to do something they wouldn’t otherwise do because they are posing as somebody else.
“I’m going to be walking through not only our experience but also a fraud attempt that took two-and-a-half months to set up, but the fraud itself lasted 41 minutes end-to-end,” Cronkright said. “And I think when folks see that, I think they’ll come to the conclusion I did that we are in a completely different dimension right now from where we were.”
Cronkright and Brown also will walk through what they call the four pillars of compliance to help protect companies from cyberthreats: hardware, software, procedures and people.
For more information on the 2017 NS3, including the agenda and a list of speakers, click here. You can register for NS3 online or click here to get information on how to register via mail, fax or phone. For sponsorship opportunities, email [email protected]