Data breaches

To make amends to former and current borrowers, Mr. Cooper is footing the bill for two years of complimentary identity protection services.

While ransomware group Alphv/Blackcat claims to have orchestrated the incident, title insurance company Fidelity National Financial has not yet stated whether confidential data was compromised.

The bank suffered its third breach in three years, this time by virtue of a vulnerability in Progress Software's file-transfer system. But Flagstar is only one of many such victims.

The customers were affected by an incident involving a Progress Software program used by Sovos Compliance.

The incident occurred in November 2020 when an unauthorized party gained access to company systems and deployed ransomware, resulting in compromise of employees' personal information.

The case involved incidents occurring in early 2021, when an unauthorized individual obtained access to files containing personal identifiable information of consumers.

HomeTrust Mortgage disclosed customers' names, addresses and Social Security numbers may have been compromised in the incident.

Tech executives say that improperly incorporating new software with existing systems can result in breaches and leaked personal identifiable information.

A class action said the company, which has suffered two breaches in the past year, also was responsible for a larger breach and “downplayed” the situation when it notified consumers.

With the Colonial Pipeline attack still in the news, bank CEOs testifying at a recent hearing cited cyber risk as the biggest threat facing the industry. But members of Congress did not share those concerns, and instead were more focused on criticizing banks about overdraft fees and their level of investment in minority communities.

Data security, while better than paper-based processes, still can be a problem, according to panelists at Digital Mortgage 2020.

With the recent acceleration to cloud computing, how can mortgage companies, who constantly deal with sensitive personal information, maintain safety?

Under terms of the settlement approved by a Georgia court Monday, Equifax may also have to pay an additional $125 million if the initial amount doesn't cover all the claims.

The Massachusetts Democrat is questioning a claim by the agency about the amount of redress available to those affected by the credit bureau's 2017 data breach.

Equifax Inc. agreed to pay up to $700 million to resolve U.S. federal and state investigations into the 2017 hack that compromised some of the most sensitive information of more than 140 million people.

The agreement with authorities including the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general — and possibly the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — may be announced as soon as Monday.

A bill by Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., would give the CFPB authority to oversee cybersecurity efforts at the credit bureaus.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee concluded that last year’s massive data breach at Equifax was fully preventable, but stopped short of recommending new laws aimed at averting future hacks. Democrats called the final report a “missed opportunity.”

Credit reporting firms with significant operations in New York will face new cybersecurity and registration requirements to stave off concerns related to a breach of Equifax's systems last year.

WEI Mortgage discovered a data breach from an email phishing scam last fall that may have exposed loan package information and identifying data such as Social Security numbers.