As a landlord, you need your website and email in order to run your business. You have every tenant’s background information on file, as well as their personal identification information. Tenants pay rent online, you pay contractors, and so on. Your business is a potential goldmine for hackers and cybercriminals. Your website and email contain data-rich information such as tenant names, social security numbers, banking information, and references that could be used for identity theft.

Ideally, landlords can outsource these issues to a property management company like us, Specialized Property Management Dallas. We focus on reducing the risks of being a landlord by providing legal counsel, the latest protection against hackers, professional collection of rent, and direct deposits of rental income into the landlord’s account. You don’t have to worry about being the targets of hackers because the operations totally shift to the property management company.

However, not every landlord is willing to surrender management duties, which is okay. You might feel that the cost is too high, or you might prefer hands-on management. However, it’s still important to be aware of the cybersecurity risks of handling your tenants’ information.

Financial Transactions at Predictable Times Raise Big Security Issues

Most tenants pay rent on the first of the month, which is a major opportunity for cybercriminals. Hackers can easily target your system, especially if you don’t keep up with the latest security technology. Your communications contain information that hackers specifically look for.

No business offers more predictable communication than those between a landlord and his or her tenants. You know that there’s going to be communication on the first of the month — rent payments, requests for extensions, lease information, and sometimes signed rental agreements sent by fax.

When you consider all the financial transactions that you engage in with tenants over the internet, it’s astonishing that many landlords remain ignorant of the risks. The impact of just one breach of your system could involve many thousands of dollars and theft of tenant information while causing grievous harm to your reputation and possible lawsuits.

Your office routinely processes rent payments, security deposits, rental applications, and payments to contractors for various property services. The impact of a security breach includes direct damages and future losses based on criminal access to Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and contractor billing data. Consider the possibility that cybercriminals could gain access to years of tax data and property records.

Type of Data and How Criminals Use It

The data that hackers collect include anything that could be used to identify people with information about themselves. That includes emails, addresses, phone numbers, bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license numbers. These are all digital currency that people can sell on the black market or “dark web,” which is a black market clearing house for fake passports, hitmen, stolen identities and other fake documents.

Data breaches are big business for specialized criminals who pay for stolen information. Criminals can use simple login information to gain access to all your accounts. They begin by testing username and password on thousands of websites using advanced software. Testing login information inevitably leads to a site where the information is accepted. At this point, hackers can quickly gain all your protected information.

Experts work to piece together information from different sources to match PII with names. Armed with information, criminals can get a photo, address and date of birth, which is usually available on social media. Once they have a complete profile, criminals can easily apply for credit in your name, use the information for medical billing and expose you to innumerable personal liabilities.

There are also people working to piece together information that they collect about you from multiple online sources into whole identities—from your photo and address to your social security number and date of birth. In the social media era, this information is surprisingly easy to gather and extremely attractive to identity thieves. If a breach happens to you, everyone whose information you’ve saved is exposed to a great deal of risk, and you’re exposed to a tremendous amount of liability.

Many landlords have no conception of how easily their systems could be hacked. Already attractive to cybercriminals because of the money and data they process, landlords often lack sophisticated security protections. That creates the perfect target for the criminal element.

That’s just one-half of the security risks that independent landlords face. The other risks include breaches caused by mishandling and improper storage of data. That opens the doors to crimes of opportunity, such as in-house theft, data phishing, dumpster diving, Trojan horses and botnets that can hold your system hostage by spreading malware.

The Most Common Cyber Threats that Landlords Face

Landlords face some of the most sophisticated cyber-attacks of any business, given the relative lack of security and high degree of cash and data processing. The most common threats include:

1) Email Scams

Email scams are tremendously popular because even amateurs can send off multiple emails to see if any work. You’ll receive a letter that offers you a deal too good to be true or solicits your participation in a scam. All you need to do is provide a security deposit or bank account information. Fortunately, these are rarely sophisticated, and easy to catch because of multiple grammar errors, capitalized words, and strings of exclamation points.

2) Ransomware

Ransomware is malicious code implanted on your computer by various means, such as opening an email attachment. Once your system has been invaded, all computer activity ceases except for the page demanding a ransom to restore service.

3) Hacking

Hacking is defined as any attempt to gain access to protected information or compromise your digital systems. Hacking can occur both manually and electronically.

4) Malware or Malicious Code

Malware is the simple abbreviation applied to malicious code, which can consist of anything used to gain access to data or corrupt computer processes. The code is transmitted by file attachments, social media links or infected websites.

5) Phishing, aka Social Engineering

Phishing or social engineering attacks occur when criminals pose as a credible organization to get sensitive personal information. The criminals use copies of official letterheads, which can often appear legitimate. Some attacks are made by criminals who pretend to be a coworker in another department.

6) Denial of Service

These are sophisticated attacks that flood your computer system with communications that it’s not equipped to handle. During the overload, attackers might use the opportunity to steal information. Some overloads are the sole reason for the attack because it damages a company’s reputation and causes financial losses from legitimate customers when the system overloads.

7) Viruses

There are many types of computer viruses, but they always involve getting you to download something. Often the download offered seems legitimate, but you find that you’ve downloaded a file with a similar name. The downloads contain a virus that performs a certain function, such as copying sensitive files, changing your browser or opening your system to a myriad of ads.

8) Botnets

Botnets often work together in coordinating a task, such as web maintenance, but malicious botnets coordinate multiple systems to initiate cyber-attacks, such as denial of service, popup ads or email spamming.

The Prospect of Ever More Sophisticated Landlord Attacks

Independent landlords face the prospect of cyber threat of increasing sophistication because they’re low-hanging fruit that’s easily targeted and ripe for picking. It’s not the landlord’s fault, but the increase in digital communication and electronic rent payments make landlords an appealing hacking target.

Ideally, hiring a property management company is the best solution to the long-term risk. Sure, you might start out by collecting your rent in person or managing cybersecurity with an unusual level of skill. However, dealing with security issues month after month can get old very quickly. Your tenants will eventually demand the convenience of electronic payments.

Even if you hire a property management company, it’s important to learn about the risks because most landlords keep copies of everything on their personal computers. You should familiarize yourself with common cyber threats, create and update strong passwords regularly and refuse to download anything from questionable sources. The following steps are recommended for protecting information on your personal computer:

• Fight breach fatigue, a common weakening of resolve over time to maintain strict security measures

• Storing information about tenants and their PII in separate areas or systems

• Arranging protected and encrypted emails for tenants

• Restricting access to your tenant files

• Storing your tenant data offsite

You or your property manager is required to maintain copies of certain information securely. That information includes:

• Tenant application and screening records

• Legal notices served and corresponding actions

• Rental payment records

• Inspection records after tenants move out and security deposit information

• Pet policy agreements and security deposit for pets

• Work orders and maintenance requests

• Email correspondence

In the Dallas area, landlords can become targets of increasingly complex cyber threats. At Specialized Property Management, we provide the kind of worry-free property management that handles all tenant interactions with professionalism and utmost security.

Contact us today for a quote! 214.233.7572