CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — People in Texas and across the country tried to pay their mortgage recently, only to find out the loan servicer fell victim to a cyberattack.
Fidelity National Financial was attacked in a ransom attack, affecting many different services, including LoanCare, one of its subsidiaries.
An anonymous customer was frustrated with the lack of communication from LoanCare, stating they had to find out by trying to pay their mortgage, not the company notifying them.
"Why didn’t they write us message there for everybody, and say we’re still working on it? " they customer said. "[Or] please don’t worry, there’s not going to be any late fees. Or whatever. Put a message out there say(ing) "don’t worry we will update you here as to when were up and running." They completely shut us out everywhere."
Fidelity National Financial notified the Security and Exchange Commissions on Nov. 19 that they were aware of a cybersecurity attack that impacted some FNF systems, including LoanCare, impacting services like escrow accounts and mortgages.
LoanCare did not notify customers until their landing page stated that they fell victim to a cyberattack on Nov. 28. which stated that there will be no late fees accrued or negative credit reports due customers not being able to pay their mortgage during this time. That same landing page is not working as of the time of this publication.
The same anonymous customer said they have to consider other factors like property taxes.
"I’m just concerned like everybody else. I’m concerned now for my property taxes which I have to now go pay property taxes if they [city] don’t receive it by Dec. 10. I’m concerned about my bank account. I’m concerned mostly how they have not given us any information at all," they said.
Dr. David Ramcharan, CIO of I.T. At Texas A&M Corpus Christi, said it could be a while before the situation is fixed or if the company decides to pay the ransom.
"I’m not in contact with their IT department, so I don’t know what it is, but we’ve seen companies take 2 weeks to a month before they can restore or before they can make a deal and get things turned back on," Ramcharan said.
Fidelity National Financial has not responded to calls asking to comment.
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