DS News

78 New Jersey Lisa G Lopez Broker of Record Home Alliance Realty 142 E. Bay Ave Manahawkin, NJ 08050 609-978-9009 (o) 609-384-5109 (c) lglopez@verizon.net www.HomeAllianceRealty.com www.LisaLopezProperties.com Pennsylvania The Team with More than 10 Years' REO Experience Emma Djiya 1st Class Realty 98 Forest Drive, Lords Valley, PA 18428 610.301.8003 (c) 570.775.6110 (o) 1stClassREO@gmail.com AroundThePoconos.com Connecticut Planet Realty, LLC Sales@CTREOTEAM.com 203-982-4985 cell www.CTREOTEAM.com Security • Preservation • Disposition Steve Rivkin NEW YORK Data Breach Puts Homeowners at Risk In January, OpticsML, a New York-based vendor immediately shut down their server after learning that a configuration error leaked millions of bank loan and mortgage docu- ments, including highly sensitive financial data on customers who took loans from U.S. banks, according to a report in TechCrunch. Sandy Campbell, General Counsel at Ascension's parent company, Rocktop Part- ners, confirmed the incident to TechCrunch. TechCrunch's report stated that running an Elasticsearch database, the server had more than a decade's worth of data, including loan and mortgage agreements, repayment schedules, and financial and tax documents. e statement mentioned that a portion of the loans have been submitted for analysis, but at the moment, the exact number of loans exposed cannot be confirmed. "e vendor immediately shut down the server in question, and we are working with third-party forensics experts to investigate the situation. We are also in regular contact with law enforcement investigators and technol- ogy partners as this investigation proceeds," Campbell said. "While sophisticated attacks may grab headlines, these types of misconfigurations can definitely be as impactful to the bottom line, if not more," said Tim Erlin, VP, Product Management and Strategy, at cybersecurity firm Tripwire. He was reacting to the massive data breach wherein thousands of borrowers may have had their mortgage and loan infor- mation leaked in a recent server security lapse. "is wasn't a sophisticated attack by a well-funded nation-state adversary. It was a misconfiguration, a mistake. Organizations need to be able to detect and remediate mis- configurations, period. is is highly sensitive data that was exposed to anyone willing to look for it," he added. According to TechCrunch, the server was not password protected and remained vulner- able for around two weeks before shutting down on January 15. e leak was traced back to Fort Worth-based Ascension, a data and analyt- ics company for the financial industry. e company's bank of converted paper-to-digital documents was what was exposed, according to Independent Security Researcher Bob Diachen- ko, who found the data initially. e documents affected include loans and mortgages and other correspondence from several of the major finan- cial and lending institutions dating as far back as 2008, including Citigroup, HSBC Life Insur- ance, Wells Fargo, Capital One, and some U.S. federal departments, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development. "ese documents contained highly sensi- tive data, such as Social Security numbers, names, phones, addresses, credit history, and other details which are usually part of a mort- gage or credit report. is information would be a gold mine for cybercriminals who would have everything they need to steal identities, file false tax returns, get loans or credit cards," Diachenko told TechCrunch. Economy Shifts the Balance of Housing What can we expect in the way of infla- tion, job losses, and spending? Pretty much the same as last year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. e bank's Center for Microeconomic Data released a Survey of Consumer Expectations, and it turns out that consumer expectations, in general, remained flat, even though some subsets were a little more scattered. Median home price change expectations declined to 3 percent in December, marking the sixth consecutive decline since June. But within the overall household finance realm, there was much to notice. While median expected household income expectations declined to 2.9 percent, median household spending growth expectations remained unchanged at 3.5 percent. Percep- tions of credit access improved by 2 percent (to 28) from a year earlier; at the same time, about 1 percent fewer (21.7 percent) of respondents said they expect improving conditions in credit access. About 35 percent expect credit access to get tougher. e most notable change in what to expect from the varied economic sectors was a wors- ening idea of what might become of the stock market. "e mean perceived probability that U.S. stock prices will be higher 12 months from now than they are today decreased to 39.6 percent in December," the report stated. at's the lowest level since October of 2016. Slightly more people in December said they expect to be worse off financially, possibly fueled by a drop in the number of people who said the government could avoid growing debt. at said, confidence in the current labor market remained essentially flat, though 3 per- cent more people said the job market will be worse off a year from now. Almost 36 percent Is New Jersey's current unemployment rate. The state added 17,800 jobs in January 2019 from the previous month. Source: U.S. Census Bureau STAT INSIGHT 4.0%

• Cover