The invention of the Internet and new technologies have continued to shape almost every sector, and real estate isn’t an exception. Today, all real estate transactions, including closing mortgages, payments, and even signing documents, can be done through online portals.
Dealing with online real estate transactions is beneficial to both buyers and sellers. For instance, it promotes the convenience of the buyers since they can do everything from searching for a property and making payments from the comfort of theory homes. That also helps them reduce traveling costs.
On the other hand, selling properties online exposes sellers to a broad potential customer base—and that means selling properties faster. In addition, a seller may not need to partner with an agent if they opt for online transactions. That goes a long way in helping them save money.
Although there are several benefits associated with online real estate transactions, it also comes with cybersecurity risks. And if you aren’t careful, you might lose your data and money to online criminals.
Luckily, there are numerous security practices individuals dealing with real estate transactions can implement to keep their data secure. Some of these include:
- Avoid Dealing With Physical Documents
If you’re dealing with physical documents, you risk your data. For instance, anyone can access your documents when you leave them lying for long hours on your office tables or photocopying machines. And if they’re bad people, they can compromise your data, which affects your real estate transaction.
You must also understand that dealing with physical documents means utilizing postal services for delivery. Therefore, your documents can get stolen while in transit. It’d be advantageous to avoid dealing with physical copies.
One of the best ways to avoid dealing with physical documents is to invest in e-faxing technology. This involves using online platforms to send and receive documents. As a result, your documents won’t be exposed to unauthorized users, which is the best realtor security. However, you must select the best e-faxing services.
- Encrypt Data Or Files
The best way to secure your data is to ensure all your files are delivered to the right recipient. That’s always the case since sometimes, your documents can land in the hands of an unintended person, which puts your transactions at risk. But the good news is you can invest in data encryptions to secure your transactions against online attacks.
Encryption is a cybersecurity strategy that involves encoding files or changing their content from the original language to a non-standard one. As a result, anyone who receives the documents or files won’t be in a position to know the kind of information they contain.
Anyone who wants to use your data must utilize the provided binary codes. It enables them to decode the files or convert them into a language they can understand. That goes a long way in helping keep real estate transactions secure.
- Use Strong Passwords
Using passwords to unlock your systems is one of the basic strategies to secure your transactions. They ensure no unauthorized person can access your data. However, you must create strong passwords to be sure no one can guess them correctly.
There are several important steps you need to take to ensure you establish strong passwords for your real estate transaction. First, your passcodes must be reasonably long—and the recommended length is between eight to twelve characters. Besides, you should include both numeral and alphabetical digits in your passwords. And when it comes to the alphabet, it’s advisable to have lower and upper cases. Additionally, you should remember to include a few non-standard characters in your passcodes.
You must take note that just establishing strong passwords might not be good enough to secure your real estate transactions. You should go the extra mile and change your passwords regularly. That ensures no one can correctly guess your passcodes and access your data without your knowledge.
- Invest In A Two-Factor Authentication Strategy
Passwords have been used for a long time to secure online applications and transactions. However, as technology advances, hackers are finding new ways to compromise passwords. Passwords alone are no longer effective in securing real estate transactions. For that reason, investing in a two-factor authentication strategy is necessary.
Two-factor authentication strategy is a cybersecurity process that requires users to provide two different authentication factors to prove their identity. In simple terms, it involves adding a layer of security on top of the established strong passwords. Therefore, anyone wanting to access your data must first verify their identity.
There are various types of two-factor authentication strategies, but the most common ones include answering security questions and the use of fingerprints or facial recognition to unlock online applications.
- Update Software Regularly
Using software in real estate transactions is necessary to help simplify transactions. You’ll save a lot of resources in the long run. However, the software can pose a significant risk to your transactions, especially if you’re utilizing an outdated one.
You must understand that hackers always scan old versions of software or applications to determine their vulnerability. Therefore, if you’re using outdated software, you’ll likely lose data to hackers—but you can avoid that by updating your software regularly.
Sometimes, you may forget to update your software for one reason or another. So, you can consider installing automatic system updates on your computers. That helps automatically update your software without much human intervention. As a result, your software will always remain up to date, which helps secure your real estate transactions against online attacks.
Takeaway
Today, most real estate transactions happen online, which exposes data to cybersecurity attacks. For that reason, most individuals in this sector are considering investing in cybersecurity. You should also follow suit to secure your transactions against online attacks.
As detailed above, you can implement various strategies to secure your real estate transactions. Consider implementing them to streamline your operations. You need to select the most suitable provider for your transactions. As a rule of thumb, explore your options and don’t settle for the first one you see.