Unfortunately, incidents of cyber-crime are on the rise and all businesses and individuals face the challenge of understanding what is a risk and what is not and keeping their private information safe from hacking. Cybercrime is reported every ten minutes in Australia and is becoming increasingly sophisticated. It’s important to know what is risky and what is not. Here are three steps you can take to protect yourself and your firm from cyber threats.
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Invest in training for yourself and your colleagues
Protecting your firm’s private information and keeping your client’s data safe goes a long way to enhancing your reputation and growing your business. To help law firms of all sizes, InfoTrack has partnered with CryptoAustralia to offer complimentary Cyber Security Awareness Training.
By completing complimentary Cyber Security Awareness Training, you earn 1CPD unit and learn how to identify fraud activity, how to protect yourself from hacking attempts and learn what to do if your computer is hacked. This is especially useful during times when your workforce is remote and using different systems.
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Offer easy to use, secure technology to your clients
The property industry is one of the most frequently targeted industries for fraud activity. This is due to the large amounts of money being transferred between people and the transparent nature of the industry.
Lee Bailie, Head of Securexchange, a smart technology helping lawyers, conveyancers, real estate agents, buyers and sellers to keep their property safe from cyber activity, says, “Every transaction is listed on a major listing site, so every property in the market and their agent is available for everyone to see, including scammers. Private documentation and contract requirements make it more vulnerable. There’s also a lot of parties involved meaning more chance for things to go wrong.”
Securexchange is a multi-award-winning technology that offers end-to-end property services in one simple, secure platform. As an easy-to-use, secure, collaborative workspace, Securexchange provides you with one place to request, share, sign and exchange all documents and funds involved in a property matter.
What makes Securexchange unique is that users are invited into the workspace. So, rather than sending trust account details or contracts, via email, where they could be intercepted by hackers – all parties are invited into the workspace to complete the relevant tasks associated with a property exchange. Since it’s launch in March 2018, Securexchange has protected over 5000 parties involved in property deals since March 2018. It keeps all property deposit funds and private documents 100% safe from hackers, backed by a financial guarantee.
Catherine Martin of CV Martin Legal Services said, “Securexchange has been most helpful for my business. It has not only made things easier, more efficient and secure, but it has eliminated a lot of issues that have arisen.”
To complete your property matters in one secure workplace, register for a complimentary Securexchange account today.
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Take out cyber insurance or implement monitoring technologies
When cyber threats do arise, it is important you have a solution in place to protect yourself and clients. Harcourts CEO of Victoria and Tasmania Tony Morrison strongly suggests taking out cyber insurance. “Cyber fraud is not going away. It’s increasing. So we see this as just part of doing business.”
Alternatively, there are programs that you can use which protect your email from potential spam emails. These technologies filter all possible spam emails, which you can release if you recognise the sender. It also tracks links and encourages the user to question if the link is safe to click on or not. Email is one of the most popular ways to be targeted by a hacker. Email monitoring technology, like the Cyber Security Awareness Training, encourages users to stop and think before opening and clicking on suspicious emails.
The world of digital property is here. As cyber threats rise, so too does your need for smart technology that keeps you and your clients safe while making it simple to complete property matters.
