Ransomware Attack Brings Real Estate Closings To a Halt

The AlphV/Black Cat ransomware group, infamous for significant cyberattacks in 2023, claimed responsibility in November for targeting Fidelity National Financial, a multi-million dollar title insurance provider for the real estate industry. The Record reports that Fidelity acknowledged the attack in regulatory filings submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on November 21.

The next day, AlphV/Black Cat published a lengthy screed excoriating Fidelity for hiring incident responders. According to the hackers, the response team came from Google’s Mandiant unit.

Fidelity stated that it became aware of the incident, initiated an investigation, sought assistance from leading experts, informed law enforcement, and implemented measures to assess and contain the incident.

The investigation has revealed that hackers accessed specific company systems and acquired certain credentials. Fidelity did not elaborate on the nature of those credentials.

The initial response included blocking access to certain systems, which led to disruptions in services related to title insurance, escrow, and other real estate transactions. Those measures had a broad effect on the real estate industry.

The incident underscores the downstream effects a targeted attack can have on an entire industry. According to Real Estate News, many scheduled home-sale closings have been postponed, and real estate agents, home buyers, and others are suffering.

According to a cybersecurity expert quoted in the article, Fidelity National Financial had tools exposed to the internet vulnerable to the CitrixBleed bug. That vulnerability prompted an urgent warning from top U.S. cybersecurity agencies on November 21, cautioning about potential exploitation by both nation-state hackers and cybercriminals.