The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) hosted a conference this week on how cybersecurity issues can compromise the real estate closing process.
IDFPR’s Cybersecurity Conference included information on how state regulators can proactively respond to cybersecurity issues. It also included a presentation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on current threats involving the real estate closing process.
“For most of us, the mortgage and real estate closing process is little more than the anti-climactic culmination of the all-engrossing house-hunting adventure,” IDFPR Secretary Bryan Schneider said. “In today’s tech age, however, the increase in fraud associated with mortgage closings requires industry professionals to proactively safeguard themselves and their clients. Inter-industry conferences, like the one held today, allow us all insight into how we can better protect consumers from closing fraud.”
The conference also included an inter-industry panel made up of industry experts, a hacking demonstration, and an informational presentation on best practices. Licensed professionals in attendance included attorneys, real estate professionals, title professionals and lenders.
“It is essential that these groups get together in inter-industry panels to share best practices, not only to protect their clients, but to protect themselves,” panel moderator Linda Grahovec, an executive with Fidelity National Title Group, said. “We need to educate each other on what cybersecurity issues and threats are in the market.”