In the past, the real estate industry has been known to be slow in embracing technology. However, this situation is changing. The PwC report on Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2021 found that the COVID-19 pandemic forced the real estate sector to embrace various technology solutions, including virtual open houses, digital payments, collaboration tools, and property technology to enhance business continuity. Likewise, the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2022 reports that Canadian real estate companies can successfully navigate forces of change through accelerated digitization that plays a significant role in both delivering efficiencies and creating the experiences and services the customers want. The latest report points out construction technology, increased data analytics, and digitizing operations as the key area of focus for the real estate sector in 2022.

Notably, technologies in the real estate industry have significant benefits but also introduce new cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities. Most real estate firms didn’t have comprehensive information technology strategies in place a few years back without many technology solutions at their beck and call. But, with the accelerated adoption of such technologies, there is a need for robust procedures to identify and manage security gaps in the sector. 

Increased Attacks in the Real Estate Sector 

With businesses moving deeper into the digital realm, they experience increased attacks from sophisticated threat actors. As a result, the number of cybercrime incidents in Canada is increasing – with a record of 63,523 incidents in 2020. Noticeably, cybercriminals have more recently been engaging in big game hunting, honing in on all enterprises that cannot tolerate sustained disruption to their systems and networks. In effect, such organizations opt to pay ransoms to restore their operations speedily in most cases.  

This trend is becoming common in the real estate sector, which processes large amounts of sensitive data for both clients and employees. Presently, cyberattacks in the industry are enervating as they result in loss of personal data, time, and huge sums of money. 

Recently, a Toronto-based real estate services and investment management firm acknowledged it was a cyberattack victim, most likely ransomware that copied the company’s files. The publicly-traded Colliers International Group, with corporate and institutional clients in 36 countries, experienced a violation of security controls after listing on the dark web by the Netfilim ransomware gang. 

In another incident, a Calgary real estate developer building and managing shopping centers, industrial properties, and office buildings in Alberta confirmed hackers had hit its systems with ransomware. REvil ransomware gang posted a notice on its data leak site revealing it had downloaded 755 GB of data from privately-held Ronmor Holdings, which controls Ronmor Developers.   

A British Columbia-based real estate agency is also a victim of a cyberattack. The Conti ransomware group listed ReMax Kelowna as one of its victims on its website. The threat actor also listed the names of 15 files it allegedly copied from the victim as proof it had instigated the attack. However, ReMax Kelowna owner and managing director Jerry Redman believes that the hackers responsible for the incident only managed to copy “non-personal company data,” including “graphic design stuff that the company does for people.” 

How Can Real Estate Companies Mitigate Cyber Risks? 

The Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2022 reports that organizations will need to continue managing their cyber risks alongside accelerated digitization in the industry. “Securing your organization by uniting your lines of defense to see the big picture will help you stay agile to emerging innovations and threats and keep your operations running securely as you introduce new technologies,” states the report. 

So, how can real estate stakeholders protect data in a virtual world? The sector should think about the following best practices and security measures: 

Understand Your Risk
It is vital for real estate companies to conduct a security assessment to identify vulnerabilities and other gaps. This assessment helps develop a practical road map that organizations can adapt to mitigate cyber risks. 

Risk Prioritization 
Risk assessment produces a list of risks that a real estate player should address. Since the risks might be many, it is critical to prioritize them by following industry best practices and recommendations from frameworks such as the CIS Critical Security Controls. CIS Critical Security Controls provides a prioritized set of actions to protect organizations and data from cyber-attack vectors. 

Tools and Technology Assessment
Real estate companies should perform due diligence before adopting new tools and technologies. For instance, they can perform a risk assessment, penetration testing, or architecture review before adopting the solutions. 

Vendor Risk Assessment
Real estate companies working with cloud providers and other managed service providers should implement ways to evaluate the vendors’ security posture continuously. 

Monitor Risk Exposure
Real estate players should implement robust processes for monitoring risk exposures regularly. This measure also includes monitoring their networks, endpoints, and users to identify malicious activities in real-time. 

Implement Enterprise Security
Real estate companies must safeguard and streamline their network and endpoint security. However, securing the enterprise’s IT assets involves more than just installing security software and appliances. The technologies and tools deployed need to work together, and the system should dynamically adapt to new threats and provide enhanced security posture visibility.  

Cybersecurity Awareness Training
Cybersecurity training is often seen as essential by employers, but not all companies place the same importance on follow-up training to refresh the knowledge of the already-trained staff. You must train like a sportsman in cybersecurity. Conspicuously, real estate companies can easily fall into phishing scams if they don’t train employees to recognize and visualize them. 

Meet Regulatory Compliance
Real estate firms should meet regulatory compliance while keeping security in check. In this case, such companies should have full visibility into their IT environment to ensure the business proactively meets stringent compliance requirements. Sentia offers compliance consulting and coordination across the full spectrum of compliance standards, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDR). 

Become Cyber Resilient with Sentia

Cyber security is at the forefront of every business. With recent cyber breaches increasing in numbers and sophistication, real estate companies can partner with Sentia, which offers real-world expertise across a broad spectrum of subject matter to enable them to assess, architect, implement and manage high-value IT solutions customized for their unique business requirements. In addition, sentia provides security solutions to safeguard the real estate sector and ensure the companies keep their business and valuable data prepared and protected against unwanted threats. Some of the security services include enterprise network security, compliance consulting, cybersecurity consulting, and managed security services. 

Better still, Sentia has partnered with Cynet’s XDR solutions to provide adequate monitoring and real-time identification of threats plaguing networks, users, and endpoints. That way, Sentia will enhance its capabilities in investigating and responding to triggers, including establishing the attack’s scope and root cause. Real estate businesses can leverage Sentia’s complete coverage of all attack vectors and integrated security capabilities that feature endpoint detection and response, network detection, and user behavioral analytics. 

Let’s start the conversation and get the consultative advice you need from Sentia’s qualified team of seasoned professionals.