Protect Real Estate Business from Ransomware Attack
Capping off the Realtor Safety Month, we’d like to share with you vital information on how you can protect your real estate business from ransomware attacks. Real estate agents as a business rely through remote systems and cybercriminals are exploiting the vulnerabilities of the systems. Cyber attacks such as ransomware can make a huge impact in our real estate business.
What is Ransomware?
Ransomware is a malware designed to deny access to a user to their files on their computers. Cyber criminals will encrypt the files and demand a ransom for the decryption key. Cyber attackers place the businesses in a position where paying the ransom is the easiest and cheapest way to gain access to their files.
The rise in cyberattacks have affected a large number of organizations. The White House declared cybersecurity a national priority and issued directives to better protect against threats.
Protect Your Real Estate Business
All organizations such as real estate businesses are susceptible to cyber attacks. Here are some tips to protect your business.
- Train Yourself and Your People
Provide training to yourself and your people on cybersecurity to raise their awareness of the risks of suspicious websites, clicking unverified links, as well as opening fraud attachments.
Team members should create strong and unique passwords that are updated regularly. Moreover, the use of multifactor authentication is highly recommended.
- Implement Best Practices
Automate your software security scanning and updates to minimize vulnerabilities.
- Back Up Your Data
Have a back up of your data that is separate from the main services. Be aware which vendors and third parties have access to your network and confidential files. Also, best to perform routine audits.
- Use a Virtual Private Network or VPN
Cybercrime can be devastating. Aside from the hassle of losing data, you may lose your brand reputation and your customers’ confidence – this is even harder to recover. When we take small steps to improve awareness and partnering with cybersecurity experts, we can avoid being targets of cyber attackers.
