Survey: Real estate businesses lacking in information security; they should proactively protect this information, says Lauren Reynolds, Rose Law Group litigation attorney who focuses on privacy and data breach issues

RISMedia

Few real estate businesses have policies in place for handling confidential information—information about clients, namely—and even less understand legal requirements about housing and/or trashing sensitive information, according to a recently released survey.

Per findings from the Shred-it Information Security Tracker Survey, conducted by Ipsos, 26 percent of real estate businesses have no formal procedure for managing personal information on electronic devices, and 19 percent have only “some understanding” of related laws and “somewhat adhere to them, but not on a daily basis.” The lapses pose significant risks, especially now that many real estate businesses have migrated to paperless transactions.

Continued:

“Often times, the discussion about information security focuses on technology driven industries. However, technology is ubiquitously used to store and transmit information in almost every industry. The security of that information is of the utmost importance, and businesses should proactively protect this information. In some cases, they are legally required to do so.”

~Lauren Reynolds