LOGAN real estate agents will be among those gaining access to a national cyber resilience toolkit, aimed to strengthen the sector against cyber attacks.
The toolkit, which is currently in development, acts as a guide to clearly explain Australian privacy laws and data security requirements in the context of everyday real estate transactions.
It is expected to provide practical advice for how real estate agents can securely collect and store personal information and how to better safeguard against cyber-attacks and avoid unauthorised personal information disclosures.
It will also provide series of guidelines for internal use and a checklist for real estate agencies to use when selecting and assessing third party suppliers and data partners.
REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said: “Cyber-attacks continue to be a significant and serious threat and we’ve been taking a leading and proactive role to support and empower Queensland real estate practitioners to protect their businesses and their customers.
“The REIQ is proud to have a long-standing partnership with AON, the world’s largest insurance broker and leading provider of insurance to the real estate sector.
“Through this partnership, we have worked hard to keep real estate agents up to date with privacy law requirements and cyber risks.
“The REIQ has also partnered with AON and Securexchange to develop a short-course for real estate agents on cyber security awareness and this is available to REIQ members and all real estate professionals.
“We’ve also integrated Securexchange into Realworks, the REIQ’s forms platform, which includes sales contracts used by real estate professionals, to allow parties to communicate and arrange funds transfers in a safe environment away from the dangerous eyes of cyber criminals.
“Through our education programs and professional development events, we have provided extensive training around privacy laws and cyber awareness and resilience.
“We have also previously developed a suite of privacy related template policies and documents for the real estate sector.
“This is all support that has been delivered to date and is ongoing in nature, to empower real estate agents to make compliant and informed decisions, and to transact responsibly.
“However, given recent high profile cyber-attacks on various sectors, including the real estate sector, its timely to reassure the real estate community and real estate consumers that we’ll continue to support them as new cyber threats and challenges arise.
“To do so, behind-the-scenes we’ve been working on packaging all our best practice advice and information regarding cyber resilience into a reliable one-stop-shop resource.”
Ms Mercorella said the REIQ plans to take the toolkit further, by working with the PropTech sector to develop a series of guidelines for third party technology suppliers.
