This seems to be a popular question lately, so we wanted to share PBI Group’s thoughts on the matter. Residential real estate brokerages often have a website and email domain for their agency but not all or Continue Reading
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is the name of an IT network security system that is becoming a more common cyber insurance carrier requirement for larger real estate agencies. The term EDR is somewhat new Continue Reading
Cyber insurance is now a requirement for many real estate brokerages. This comes as more and more cybercriminals are successful in their attempts to steal information and money from real estate agents nationwide. At Continue Reading
Not a fun read but something that could be handy if unfortunately, you need to look up your state’s laws regarding IT security breach notification requirements. Of course if you have a cyber insurance policy Continue Reading
The days of having IT systems running on your own computer hardware, in a closet at the office are a thing of the past. Almost everyone has cloud-based IT vendors running some portion of their IT stack including Continue Reading
Cyber insurance carriers have been raising rates over the past year or so, often by 100%. To help fix the route cause of cyber events which lead to claims and subsequently increased premiums; Corvus has published Continue Reading
MFA (multi-factor authentication) or 2FA (two-factor authentication) is the same thing. These are security terms that represent an additional layer of login security for systems with valuable information such as Continue Reading
As cybercrime increases year over year the US Secret Services is helping with some useful guides to have on hand if an event does take place. Secret Service Field Office Cyber Fraud Task Forces FBI Field Office Continue Reading
Coalition, one of PBI Group’s cyber carriers, publishes a bi-annual report on claims activity. Very interesting read, below are some highlights. The entire report can be found here. The 2 areas of specific Continue Reading
Cybersecurity Awareness Training is starting to gain momentum among real estate agencies who are looking to help their agents and staff stay ahead of the bad guys. There are several service providers who offer Continue Reading
In addition to a strong cyber insurance policy, PBI Group believes that cyber awareness training is a great way to reduce your risk of having a cyber event. Check out the below provider of cyber awareness training, Continue Reading
This document is a good guide for real estate agencies who are looking for cyber security best practices to help keep their agency and agents protected from the omnipresent threat from cyber criminals. Here is the Continue Reading
Below is an example of an anti-fraud disclosure that some of our real estate clients are asking their clients to sign. IMPORTANT ALERT AND ANTI-FRAUD DISCLOSURE STATEMENT PROTECT YOURSELF FROM CYBER FRAUD This alert Continue Reading
Cyber Liability policies designed to provide 1st party coverage as well as 3rd party protection have numerous definitions which can make it complicated to figure out what is addressed by the policy and what is not. Continue Reading
Many of our real estate agency clients are concerned about wire fraud which can negatively impact their business and clients. All real estate agencies are at risk but it is a common misconception that some are Continue Reading
Here is the link to the article from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with valuable information on how to protect your agency. Continue Reading
There is a little-known gap that exists between E&O policies and Cyber liability policies, which in our opinion is a worthwhile talking about. E&O Insurance policies trigger coverage for various situations Continue Reading
We share these stories with the hope that you can start to see a pattern… everyone is a target when it comes to phishing scams. Bad actors are actively working to deceive people into transfers their money to Continue Reading
Digital Property Replacement is a subset of the Breach Rectification coverage of the cyber liability policy that PBI Group recommends. This section covers the replacement of software, data and hardware which has Continue Reading
Real Estate broker-owners/management….a friendly reminder that this NAR data security and privacy document is a great summertime read. Hopefully, you can find the time during your slower season(s) to Continue Reading
If you missed or would like to watch/listen again here is the webinar recording with the presentation slides. Link to Presentation * Every coverage situation is different, and the final outcome depends on the unique Continue Reading
PCI (or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a set of security standards designed to ensure that ALL companies that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure Continue Reading
Here is a recent situation which unfortunately impacted one of our clients and worth sharing in the hope that increased awareness will limit the chance of this happening again. This situation is a twist on the Continue Reading
What happened at Orbitz? Reports from March 20 state that up to 880,000 payment card numbers and related information could’ve been exposed in a data breach. Orbitz, which is owned by Expedia, apparently had two Continue Reading
At PBI Group we have seen this trend continue over the past 3-years and apparently, it has reached new heights. The average claim of lost client funds is $352,000 according to this recent report. This is why we Continue Reading
This scam is becoming more popular and can lead to your computer being further compromised by bad guys looking for more of your valuable client information. Be aware and don’t fall for this. Below is the Continue Reading
A nice little infographic in case you don’t have the time to watch the video: Full article from Cnet.Continue Reading
A study shows that Los Angeles area homebuyers are losing five million dollars a month to cybercriminals. In a scheme that started in 2013, and which shows no signs of slowing down, buyers are tricked into sending Continue Reading
Phishing scams are very popular and often revolved around products or services which are important to us and widely used. Here is a successful scam that is going around this week, the bad guys are emailing you that Continue Reading
Life as a real estate agent is busy, always on the go and juggling multiple clients. You are often being pulled in multiple directions while staying focused on helping your clients get through what is regularly a Continue Reading
A new vulnerability has been discovered recently called “KRACK Attack”. In short, there is a exploitable flaw in the Wi-Fi security protocol WPA2, this protocol is designed to encrypts data traffic over Continue Reading
Here is a helpful guide to understanding some of the things to look for when attempting to figure out if an email is real or fake. Click here to view a full-size PDF of the above image. Viewing this infographic Continue Reading
Lots of discussion since the Equifax breach about freezing or monitoring your credit report. Let’s just discuss the basics briefly. #1 View your credit report from all 3 agencies. There is a free, authorized by Continue Reading
A new phishing email is going around with an MS Word attachment offering unique Google search tactics. Do not open the email and more importantly do not open the attachment. Even though the Word document has no Continue Reading
Another huge breach.. this one the bad guys good a lot of valuable information, here is the summary: Equifax reported a cybersecurity incident potentially impacting 143 million U.S. consumers. The company has found Continue Reading
The bad guys are working hard, 100 attempts per month in Nevada! Our cyber liability policy cover for this type of claim. Get a quote today.Continue Reading
It is hard to believe that a small insurance brokerage company like PBI Group could become a target of a (somewhat) sophisticated social engineer scam commonly referred to as a CEO Fraud but we did. Here is the Continue Reading
Financial Fraud Kill Chain (FFKC) is FBI program designed to recover funds for customers who have been victimized by fraudulent international wire schemes. The FFKC is a cooperative program to attempt to Continue Reading
If so, you may be in a situation where your policy does not provide coverage due to an unsupported software application running on your computers. All software eventually reaches a point where it is no longer Continue Reading
If your systems are down due to a Ransomware attack, Business Interruption coverage can help by protecting your agency from loss of your income and additional expense when the Insured Computer System sustains a Continue Reading
You may have seen the news this weekend. Criminal hackers have released a powerful strain of ransomware that spreads itself automatically across all computers in a network, causing a global epidemic. If you are not Continue Reading
Passwords are a fact of life on the Internet today—we use them for everything from ordering flowers and online banking to logging into our favorite airline Web site to see how many miles we have accumulated. The Continue Reading
Research studies are becoming very popular on the topic of cybersecurity. Unfortunately, none of them are focused or include residential real estate firms among their survey audience so much of the information is Continue Reading
It is very easy to get caught up in all these free/cheap cloud storage services which enable us access to anything we need, at our fingertips, in just a few clicks, while on our phone in line at Starbucks. The Continue Reading
Today another client called with a wire transfer fraud situation where their client wired approximately $300,000 for closing to a fraudulent bank account. Thankfully this real estate agency purchased cyber liability Continue Reading
I, < Agent> will never request or forward alone someone else’s request * to my Client, via any form of electronic communication including email, text message or voice mail asking to transfer any funds. Continue Reading
Let’s first define the difference: Funds Transfer 1st Party coverage for Cyber Liability protects the Insured aka the real estate firm who holds the insurance policy from a loss of their own assets. A popular Continue Reading
Tradeshow season is among us and I am sure your agents are looking forward to their regional or national conferences. Please make sure you share this piece of simple advance before they leave: Do not plug in any Continue Reading
Besides a comprehensive Cyber Liability insurance policy. Here are some things you can do to protect your agents. Continue Reading
A real estate team hires a freelance graphic designer to create a series of new logos for the official launch of their newly branded team. The graphic designer created more than a dozen options to choose from and Continue Reading
A Data Breach Coach is a leader, often a person at a law firm, who is your main point of contact once a breach is suspected. He or she is available through a feature in your Cyber Liability policy via a 24-hour Continue Reading
As discussed in our previous post 5 Simple Steps Real Estate Agents can do themselves to reduce Cyber exposure, setting up the remote locating feature on your smartphone is a smart thing to do now. It takes 5 Continue Reading
It is time to officially stop using Yahoo email address and migrate to a new email provider. The news today of yet another breach that exposed 1 billion user accounts, is the largest such attack in the history of Continue Reading
First off, this stuff can be confusing and daunting… it is for everyone. Take 1 step at a time, together with your technical resource you will figure it out together. Remember you don’t have to be first when Continue Reading
Like a shield wall for an army, Security Awareness Training is a valuable tool to help reduce your cyber liability exposure by employing a formal process of educating agents regarding cybersecurity threats. The Continue Reading
Funds Transfer Pledge: When you secure a new buy-side or sell-side client it is time to have this conversation (and have it again 1-2 weeks prior to closing)….. a Fund Transfer Pledge is a verbal and written Continue Reading
So how do hackers get into your email account? One way is to trick you to grant them access. Humans are always the weakest link in any security chain 🙁 Here is an example of how that works, and this one hit close to Continue Reading
Awareness is the first step! Increase your Cyber awareness. Always verify ANY changes in payment instructions. If it is the 1st time you are transferring money make sure you talk with the person receiving the funds. Continue Reading
Here is a good example of Deceptive Funds Transfer is it is explained in this Claims Scenarios from Victor O. Schinnerer & Company, Inc.: http://schinnerer.com/cyber/deceptive-transfer-insurance/Continue Reading
Suspicious emails: unclaimed insurance bonds, diamond-encrusted safe deposit boxes, close friends marooned in a foreign country. They pop up in our inboxes, and standard procedure is to delete on sight. But what Continue Reading
The median cost for Data Breach Coach and investigative services runs $29,000. Continue Reading
60% of small/mid-market businesses go out of business within 6 months of having a cyber compromise or breach event. Continue Reading
Social engineering is the art of manipulating people so they give up valuable information. Criminals use this tactic as it is easier to exploit the natural inclination to trust than to breach system security. Continue Reading
Cyber Liability is a stand-alone insurance policy that covers 1st party and 3rd party damages and expenses associated with lawsuits brought about from cybersecurity risk. These risks include: 1st and 3rd Party Funds Continue Reading
