The Equifax breach was just one hot topic discussed at NAMB’s national conference this past weekend; we spoke to attendees about how originators might navigate credit security going forward
The Equifax breach was just one hot topic discussed at NAMB’s national conference this past weekend; we spoke to attendees about how originators might navigate credit security going forward.
“I believe the Equifax breach will have some role to play for originators. They are going to have to be a little bit more aware when providing a credit report,” Amy Holmes, founder and president of Level 3 Lending, told Mortgage Professional America. “Instead of just giving a score and saying this is great now let’s move on; there is going to have to be a moment of clarity with them to really dive in and make sure nothing has happened to that credit report.”
Equifax, the country’s oldest credit reporting agency, has found itself in hot water following the announcement of a large-scale credit breach that has impacted an estimated 145.5 million customers.
Read more: CFPB calls for more oversight
The breach resulted in stolen names, social security numbers, addresses, and birth dates – all valuable information that could put those affected at risk of identity theft.
Originators have since considered how they should advise clients going forward and what additional security measures could be put in place to protect sensitive info.
Ryan Bench, director of sales for Biometric Signature ID, believes his company’s technology could help better protect mortgage clients from future security breaches.
The company offers BioSig-ID, a multi-factor authentication process, security software that requires hand-drawn passwords for authentication.
Read next: 38 attorneys general ask Experian, TransUnion to stop credit-freeze fees
The software identifies speed, length, direction, angle, and height of hand-drawn passwords to establish a user’s authenticity.
“We look at the Equifax breach was a huge, significant event. The amount of trust that was compromised was (huge). When you start looking at the credit bureaus that were affected, how do you recover from that?” Bench said. “It’s very difficult to do so. What we’re doing is offering help to these different institutions that are really looking to authenticate their employees, their customers their venders, transactions, you name it. As well as authenticate users as they’re logging onto their workstations. Not only online but physically as well.”
