Some of our emails to you are now encrypted – why?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) continues to put policies in place that follow their ongoing efforts for consumer protection. In response to these efforts, ALTA (American Land Title Association) has implemented some Best Practices for all title and escrow companies. One of these Best Practices is around how title and escrow companies handle Non Public Information (NPI).
NPI includes any information we hold in our systems and/or files that is non-public – specifically in our industry that would be a social security number or personal tax ID numbers. ALTA now recommended that all companies that handle NPI information in files take every precaution to protect this information against security risks.
In response Equity Title Agency has implemented a procedure and now all emails that contain NPI information will be encrypted. We are utilizing an encryption program by Sophos to secure these emails.
If we send you an email that may contain NPI, you will receive an email in your regular inbox. The subject line will state “SPX Registration Request from Equity Title Agency” if you don’t have an account setup. Click on that link, and it will step you through how to set up your Sophos SPX portal account. Remember your password. You will then receive emails with encyrpted PDF files. Once you have completed this set up process, you will be able to access the email by entering a password you have set up and can also respond to the email, if necessary.
We know that this may take a bit of time to get used to, but it is a system that is being put into place for an important reason – to protect you and your client’s personal information. With the increased cyber-fraud and identity theft in today’s world, we need to take every precaution to protect our consumers.
Please contact us with any questions you have about our new email encryption.
ALTA Best Practices and Dodd Frank Reform Compliance Intro