Fidelity National Financial (FNF), a major player in the U.S. real estate services sector, recently declared that it had successfully contained a cyberattack that caused widespread disruption to its operations and subsidiaries. The incident, which FNF first disclosed on November 21, led to more than a week-long system-wide outage, severely impacting its business activities and leaving customers in a state of confusion and uncertainty.
The cyberattack virtually froze all company activities and those of its subsidiaries, affecting people involved in buying and selling homes or paying mortgages. Customers found themselves unable to access their accounts or get clear information about the status of their properties and finances. One subsidiary described the situation as a “catastrophe,” highlighting the severity of the outage and its impact on operations and customer service.
FNF reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the incident was under control as of November 26. The company is now focused on restoring normal business operations and coordinating with its customers to mitigate the effects of the outage.
The aftermath of the cyberattack saw FNF customers, including those using services like Lakeview, a company subserviced by LoanCare (an FNF company), initially unable to access their accounts. However, recent updates indicated that these services were back up and running.
The ransomware group ALPHV, also known as BlackCat, reportedly claimed responsibility for the cyberattack. They listed FNF on their dark web site, which is often done to pressure victims into paying a ransom. Interestingly, the ransomware gang removed FNF’s listing from its leak site on the same day FNF announced that it had contained the incident, leading to speculation about whether a ransom was paid. FNF, however, did not respond to inquiries regarding the payment of any ransom【.
