Recover Lost Documents

A recent study showed that many mortgage lenders are not handling private financial information as cautiously as they should.

Bob Tedeschi stated in his report for The New York Times that the survey, organized late last year by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services of Minneapolis, asked executives from about 350 banks, credit unions and mortgage companies how they transmitted financial data. A little over 62 percent used the Internet, but almost two-thirds of that group stated that they normally used traditional e-mail services rather than through more secure online delivery methods.

Art Tyszka, Wolters Kluwer’s director of document services, stated that traditional transmission methods could put borrowers at a greater risk for identity theft and other forms of financial fraud. E-mail is very easy to intercept, said Tyszka.

Tyszka further explained that e-mails usually travel over a network of Internet servers, and that cybercriminals are always looking to prey upon the most poorly protected of those servers to snatch crucial personal information.

Larger banks typically use the more secure e-mail method, Tyszka said, while smaller banks or credit unions may not want to pay the cost for encryption systems.

Smaller mortgage brokers who communicate with borrowers via e-mail messages pose a tremendous threat in terms of security.

An anonymous mortgage brokerage firm president also pointed out that, with many mortgage businesses shutting down, many loan originators are walking around with boxes of loan documents with a great deal of personal financial data contained within them. These documents, in turn, could potentially be accessible to just about anyone and ultimately end up in the wrong hands.