Cybersecurity Firm HALOCK’s Investigation Finds Over 70% of Mortgage Lenders May Be Putting Sensitive Financial Data At Risk During Application Processes

HALOCK investigated 63 U.S. mortgage lenders and found that over 45 (70%) permitted applicants to send personal and financial information over unencrypted email as email attachments. This information includes tax documents and W-2′s. Eight out of the eleven top U.S. lenders were found to allow for the same unsecure practices as smaller lenders. Additionally, nearly 70% of the surveyed lenders encourage faxing sensitive data, which may reduce risks of breach, but are still not as secure as encryption.