Major Mortgage Company Fidelity National Financial Suffers Cyber Attack; Fidelity National Financial (FNF), one of the largest mortgage and real estate service providers in the U.S., was forced to shut down parts of its network and certain systems in response to cyberattack this week.
Earlier this week, on Tuesday, FNF disclosed in an SEC filing that an “unauthorized third party” breached some of its systems and acquired credentials by exploiting a vulnerability. The company did not provide specifics information on what systems were impacted or the type of data, or if any, may have been accessed. However, as a precaution FNF blocked access to certain systems, including those supporting title insurance, escrow services, and mortgage transactions.
According to sources familiar with FNF’s response, the company proactively shut down systems across the board to contain the incident, including email and other network resources.
The outage left FNF clients, including real estate agents and home buyers, without the critical systems needed to close transactions. With closings cancelled, many were put in difficult positions waiting for services to resume. FNF has said it expects its systems to come back online by Sunday.
FNF has also launched an investigation into the root cause with help from cybersecurity experts and law enforcement. The company also said it has implemented measures to “assess and contain” the incident.
The cyberattack serves as a stark reminder that even large, sophisticated enterprises can suffer data breaches with meaningful consequences. As FNF manages the fallout, it provides a lesson to all companies on the importance of cyber resilience and response planning.
