Ransomware ‘catastrophe’ at Fidelity National Financial causes panic with homeowners and buyers

Ransomware ‘catastrophe’ at Fidelity National Financial causes panic with homeowners and buyers

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

Last Tuesday, Fidelity National Financial, or FNF, a real estate services company that bills itself as the “leading provider of title insurance and escrow services, and North America’s largest title insurance company,” announced that it had experienced a cyberattack.

Since then, homeowners who have mortgages and prospective buyers who are purchasing properties with FNF or one of its many subsidiaries have been left confused and concerned, not knowing exactly what is happening or what to do.

“I feel like I’m getting the runaround. I don’t even know where my money is at,” said one woman, who told TechCrunch that she sold a house in Illinois for $397,000 using IPX 1031, an intermediary owned by FNF.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she has been trying to call IPX 1031 but has not been able to talk to anyone there.

When TechCrunch called a number for an employee at IPX 1031 that the woman had been calling, a voicemail said that “Fidelity National Financial is still experiencing a system-wide outage. We do not have access to send or receive email or access to any system. We appreciate your patience.”

FNF has not responded to TechCrunch’s emails since last week.

A call on Monday to FNF’s receptionist at its corporate office was met with an automated message saying the receptionist was busy. Calls to the same number on Wednesday returned the same automated message.

FNF’s website was down at the time of publication.

To date, FNF has said little publicly about the incident. In a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission where it announced the breach, FNF said: “We blocked access to certain of our systems, which resulted in disruptions to our business. For example, the services we provide related to title insurance, escrow and other title-related services, mortgage transaction services, and technology to the real estate and mortgage industries, have been affected by these measures.”

Shortly after the cyberattack, the ransomware gang known as ALPHV (or BlackCat) claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on FNF in a message posted on the gang’s official dark web site.