MLS System Under Cyber-Attack
Appraisers, I belong to several appraiser forums, with active participation among appraisers. On Wednesday June 12, 2019, per a forum posting, the MetroList MLS (which uses Rapattoni data) was hit from an outside cyber-attack. This MLS provides service in central California around the Sacramento region.
The cyber-attack caused property data to become unavailable via web sites – to appraisers and real estate agents.
The MLS posted this message:
The MetroList computer network that supports Prospector MLS is down as a result of a cyber-attack. The MetroList team is working at a very fast pace to resolve and restore services as quickly as possible.
The cyber-attack we are experiencing is very similar to those that have impacted thousands of other businesses and governments across the country. All MetroList data is backed up and our team is working through the various issues to get the systems up and running.
I am passing this info along because Rapattoni is a data service used elsewhere in the US. Appraisers should watch for any unusual issues when accessing property data in whatever MLS that also uses Rapattoni, as the cyber-attack could be focused on that data service.
There may also be an effort to access and attack other property databases used in other MLS associations.
Dave Towne on e-AppraisersDirectory.com
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I wonder how Datamaster will deal with this
And guess who owns Metrolist folks?
MetroList allegedly paid $10K ransom after being compromised by hackers, leaving more than 20K subscribers without a functioning system for nearly 2 days.
There is a “perception” issue among many appraisers who claim a certain large data amalgamation company ‘owns’ MLS associations. Actually, MLS associations are owned by the local or regional real estate brokers who have formed companies to gather and disseminate property listing and sale info among their agent/broker members, which can include appraisers who join the association by paying dues. Building computer data bases to keep track of this info is a daunting task. Therefore, most MLS systems contract with other companies who have built the data base. Rapattoni and Terra Soft’s Matrix are two such data bases. The ‘large data amalgamation company’ did buy Matrix, which is used in many MLS associations across the US and Canada. But they don’t own the MLS associations which use it…..although I’m open to correcting this statement if you can provide specific ownership info showing the ‘data amalgamation company’ is the technical owner of the association.