Cyber Security and Real Estate

A recent article I wrote for the Tampa Realtor magazine.

      Nothing seems to slow down the constant roll-out of modern miracles in technology. We spend a lot of effort trying to keep up to ensure we are taking advantage of every benefit for our business and clients. But with all that technological goodness comes some risk. Cyber security has become a buzz word. It is a well-known term, but not a well-used practice. If your anything like me, you aren’t independently wealthy and you are going a million miles a minute and just don’t have time or money for some elaborate “virtual suit of armor”. Even if I weren’t so busy, I’m just not “tech savy” enough to really understand the risk and what to do about it to protect myself. So I spoke to Ashley Player and Greg Surla, subject matter experts from our community, to give us some simple and timely tips to mitigate those risks and better secure ourselves personally and professionally.

           Meet Ashley Player, the Operations Manager for Seven Serpents, LLC which is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business based out of St. Petersburg and provides training and consulting services for both government and commercial entities across the country.  Ashley is no stranger to dangerous places as veteran of the United Sates Army with extensive experience with the Special Operations community supporting and conducting high risk and high payoff missions in the Special Operations community. 

           Adhering to the KISS principle, Ashley was able to refine years of professional experience, qualifications and training into a few simple words of wisdom. “Speaking from the perspective of someone who spent a lot of time in less than savory locations, I take comfort in the idea of doing everything within my power to protect myself. To use a cliché, knowledge is power, and everyone can have the power to protect themselves from both a cyber and personal security stand point. This is done by ensuring you take the necessary steps to understand your surroundings and they world we live in today. When you’re confident in your plan of action, you can be confident in your work and yourself.” According to Ashley, these are the main points you should consider empowering you take the necessary steps to protect yourself: 

1.    “Social Media: A Blessing and a Curse”. It’s nearly impossible in this day an age to imagine doing business without using multiple different social media platforms. While this represents an amazing opportunity to market your listings and your business, it can also leave your vulnerable to exploitation by criminals. Whenever possible, maintain a degree of separation between your professional and personal social media platforms. Keep any personally identifiable information (date of birth, personal cell phone number, names of family members, home address) limited to private settings.

2.    “Safety in Google Numbers”. Using the free Google Voice app, you can create and manage a phone number that will dial your phone directly when called, as well as allow people to leave voice messages. This enables you to keep separate your personal phone number and professional phone number.

3.    “Dual-Factor Authentication: Twice as Hard to Crack”. In order to add an additional layer of security to your online accounts, especially ones that may contain proprietary information you should consider enabling the dual authenticator setting. For Gmail, consider using dual-factor authentication, such as Google Authenticator app. This app can also be used for other online account access. The app randomly generates a six-digit code that changes every 15 seconds. Once you sign in with your username and password, you will then be required to input the six-digit code. This makes it extremely difficult for anyone to hack your accounts. This can be used for log ins to sites such as Facebook and Linked In as well as your email accounts.

4.    “To Geotag or not to Geotag”. Geotagging is the act of “tagging" a geographical location to something like a status update, a tweet, a photo or something else you post online. This can be beneficial when listing houses or promoting specific events. It can also be risky if you do not actively control what is geotagged. Always check your location service settings on your phone to ensure whatever applications you are using do not automatically geotag your photos. Certain applications such as Facebook and Instagram will track your location and allow someone to monitor your movements and patterns.

5.    “Personal Safety Plan of Action”. In today’s world of technology, there are many options to aid you in creating a plan of action to ensure your safety. Consider purchasing an application that will allow you to safely and effectively communicate your location at all times. An example of this can be found in the app bSafe which allows you check in and share your location with selected people and set timers to trigger an alarm if you fail to check in at a designated time. If you are an iPhone user, when you make a call with SOS, your iPhone automatically calls the local emergency number. With the 8 and above this is achieved by holding the power button at the same time as one of the volume buttons until the SOS symbol appears. Establishing check in times with coworkers or friends can ensure someone knows where to look if you do not make contact. Your office should create a plan of action to vet prospective buys in order to protect you and your co-workers, such as meeting all unknown clients at the office and retaining their driver’s license on file while at showings.

6.    “Virtual Private Networks”. A virtual private network (VPN) is a method of employing encryption to provide secure access to a remote computer over the Internet. VPNs help secure the data in transit between your computer and the internet. Public WiFi networks leave you open to hackers who can steal your information and monitor your actions while using this network. In addition to using a VPN (and this is a big one) make sure to password protect your PDFs, word documents or excel spread sheets with any personally identifiable information, prior to sending it out via email. That one extra step goes a long way to protect critical private information from casual compromise.

           Next, meet Greg Surla, the Director of Information Security for ConnectWise. Greg stressed the importance of your situational awareness. Simply put, “security is everyone’s job, but you have to be aware of what is happening.” There are a number of applications available to safeguard your information but one action that is often overlooked is awareness and taking the time to verify. He recommends taking a hard look at an email before clicking on it especially if you do not know the individual sending it. The simple step of hovering over a link before clicking could deter a security breach. 

           Another simple step in digital security is eliminating the amount of data that is available in the event of a security breach. Take Facebook Messenger for example.  Most people have the default setting to save their messages indefinitely. With all messages still in the inbox if a breach were to occur, you could be providing a large amount of personal information. To eliminate this risk you can set the your phone to delete messages after a certain amount of time. In the case of iMessage, most people set their phones on the default of keeping their messages forever, but this offers a huge trove of potential data to an attacker that might access this data.

           There is no denying the impact technology has on every facet of our life, big and small. Things we take as common place were considered technological miracles a few years ago. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? One thing is certain, it will be a two-edged sword. A massive amount of information is easily assessable and right at our finger tips thanks to technology. There is no denying the value of information, and more importantly the access to information, in our industry. It makes it easier to be better at what we do. But there is risk as well.  Be informed. Be aware. Take the small steps that add up to better protection.