What Title Companies Need From Technology

What Does a Title Company Actually Need From Its Technology?

The compliance risks, the closing-day gaps, and what we see most often when we walk into a title office for the first time.

We get called into a lot of title offices after something goes wrong.

Sometimes it is a closing-day printer failure with a buyer sitting at the table. Sometimes it is a wire fraud attempt that nearly succeeded. Sometimes it is an IT audit finding that a departing employee still had access to the document management system three months after they left.

Novatech works with nearly 1,000 real estate and title companies across the Southeast. This guide is our attempt to answer the questions we hear most often, before you have to call us in a crisis.

From the Field

Novatech has worked with title companies, real estate firms, and mortgage offices across Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia for over two decades. The patterns we describe in this guide come from that direct experience. In almost every case, the problems we find were predictable and had been building for some time before they caused a crisis.

What Makes Technology Risk Different for a Title Company?

Quick Answer

What makes a title company’s technology risk different from other businesses?

Title companies handle non-public personal information on every transaction: Social Security numbers, account numbers, property values, and loan details. That data is regulated under GLBA, and wire fraud targeting real estate closings now exceeds $1 billion annually according to the FBI. Unlike most businesses, a single technology failure at a title company can kill a transaction, trigger a regulatory finding, or result in a six-figure fraud loss in a matter of minutes.

What Are the Most Common Technology Gaps in Title Offices?

Wire Fraud Exposure Through Email

The attack is consistent enough that the FBI issues repeated warnings specifically to real estate and title professionals. A criminal monitors an active email thread involving a pending closing. When wire instructions are exchanged, they intercept or spoof the message and substitute their own account number. The funds are wired and rarely recovered.

• Multi-factor authentication on every email account, including front desk and part-time staff
• Email filtering that flags messages where the sender domain does not match the display name
• A standing written policy that any change to wire instructions requires a callback to a previously verified phone number

From the Field

The verbal callback policy is the single most effective control we have seen title companies implement. It costs nothing to put in writing. It has stopped attempted fraud at companies we work with in Nashville and Virginia Beach. Fraudsters rely on urgency and trust. A phone call breaks both.

The Copier Hard Drive as a GLBA Liability

Every networked copier stores images of documents it processes on an internal hard drive. In a title office, that drive contains closing packages, HUD statements, deeds, and loan payoffs. When a device reaches end of lease and goes back to the leasing company, that data typically leaves with it.

Tennessee’s data breach notification law, like those in Georgia and Virginia, requires notification to affected individuals when NPI is compromised. A hard drive full of closing documents leaving your office without a certified wipe is a potential breach event under these statutes.

• Require certified hard drive destruction or overwrite as a written condition of any device return
• Obtain a certificate of data destruction and keep it in your compliance records
• Enable hard drive encryption on all active devices

Closing-Day Equipment Failure With No Backup Plan

Quick Answer

What should a title company’s backup print plan include?

A reliable black-and-white laser printer in the $300 to $500 range, kept stocked with toner and paper, connected to the network, and tested quarterly. It does not need to match your primary device. It just needs to keep the closing moving. The backup for a $15,000 production copier at a title company does not need 11×17 color capability or saddle-stitch finishing. It needs to print letter-size documents reliably when the main device is down.

What Does GLBA Safeguards Rule Compliance Actually Require?

Title companies are financial institutions under GLBA because they handle NPI in connection with financial transactions. The updated 2023 Safeguards Rule added specific requirements many title offices are still working to meet:

• A designated individual responsible for your information security program
• MFA on all systems that contain customer NPI
• Encryption of NPI in transit and at rest
• A written incident response plan
• Annual risk assessments and security testing

Tennessee requires real estate records to be retained for three years under Tennessee Code Annotated 62-13-312. Virginia’s similar requirement falls under Real Estate Board regulations. Your email archiving should be configured to match state requirements, not left at the Microsoft default.

From the Field

In our assessments of title offices across the Southeast, the most common findings in order are: no MFA on one or more accounts, backups that have never been tested with an actual restore, departed employee access still active, copier hard drives with no encryption or destruction plan, and no written information security program. These are not exotic problems. They are the ordinary result of a busy office where technology was never formally reviewed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does GLBA apply to independent title companies that are not part of a bank?

Yes. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act defines financial institutions broadly. Title companies that handle NPI in connection with real estate transactions are covered. The FTC enforces GLBA compliance for non-bank financial institutions including independent title agencies.

What happens to client data when our copier lease ends?

Under a standard lease agreement, the device goes back to the lessor for refurbishment. Unless you have explicitly required and obtained a certified data wipe or hard drive destruction, the data on the internal hard drive goes with it. Require written confirmation of data destruction as a condition of any lease return and retain that documentation in your compliance records.

How much does it cost to get a title office into Safeguards Rule compliance?

For a title office that already has Microsoft 365 and an IT partner but has not addressed MFA and the written information security program, the incremental cost is usually modest. Most of the work is configuration and documentation rather than new technology purchases. For an office starting from scratch with aging hardware and no formal IT support, the investment is larger but still a fraction of the exposure from a single wire fraud incident or regulatory finding.

Should we use one IT provider for everything, or separate vendors for IT and print?

One provider who handles both creates a meaningful advantage during a closing-day crisis. When your copier is down and your IT partner manages both the device and your network, one call starts the recovery. When you have separate vendors for IT and print, closing-day failures involve multiple calls, multiple hold queues, and vendors pointing at each other while your buyer waits at the table.

Novatech Serves Businesses Across the Southeast

We have local offices and teams in major markets across the region. You work with people who know your market and are never more than a call away.

City	City	City
Nashville, TN novatech.net/locations/nashville-hq	Dallas, TX novatech.net/locations/dallas	Atlanta, GA novatech.net/locations/atlanta
Memphis, TN novatech.net/locations/memphis	Chattanooga, TN novatech.net/locations/chattanooga	Virginia Beach, VA novatech.net/locations/virginia-beach

 

Visit novatech.net/locations to find your nearest office.

About Novatech

Novatech is a managed office technology provider serving businesses across the Southeast and beyond. We manage more than 75,000 devices and support clients across IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, cloud solutions, copiers, printers, and document software, all under one roof.

To learn more about how Novatech serves the real estate and title industry, visit novatech.nethttps://novatech.net/who-we-serve/real-estate-mortgage or call your local Novatech office.