Live Wire 2024: 8 Takeaways Title Professionals Can Use to Transform Their Businesses

Cybercriminals are getting bolder. Their tactics? Smarter. Their efforts? More aggressive and elusive. At this year’s Live Wire conference, sponsored by Stewart, we brought together real estate professionals, cybersecurity leaders, and fraud prevention experts to discuss this evolving threat of real estate wire fraud.

The day-long event featured a powerhouse lineup of industry leaders from Mastercard to the United States Secret Service (USSS), covering everything from cybersecurity trends to the economic outlook for real estate in 2025. The main takeaway? With rising AI threats and data breaches, identity verification will become more integral to our everyday lives and businesses.

There were countless insights to unpack and more than enough takeaways to shape your fraud prevention strategy for the year ahead. Let’s break down the top insights and how they can help your business stay one step ahead of the cybercriminals.

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1. Expand your mission as a title professional

Tyler Adams, our CEO and Co-founder, opened the conference by challenging business leaders to redefine the industry mission by focusing on strategic transformation. 

So how does that happen? For title professionals, who are in “the eye of the storm” of real estate transactions, that means recognizing your role in protecting both consumers and partners. The central role of the title agents requires ingesting, processing, and disseminating huge amounts of valuable assets, in both information and money. 

At its core, the mission of the title industry has always been to protect homeowners’ property rights. But what if that mission is evolving to now protecting homeowners themselves, by keeping them safe during the closing process? 

The world has changed, making your business a massive target for fraud; it’s time to focus on your business’s higher-purpose mission—protection—and leverage technology to raise your potential.

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2. Make security everyone’s job

Our panel, which included CISO leaders Ron Green from Mastercard and Genady Vishnevetsky from Stewart, and led by our Chief Marketing Officer Claudia Lee, focused on the core of cybersecurity: phishing, strong passwords, MFA, and software updates. 

Ron highlighted the importance of following proven frameworks like those from CISA and the Cyber Risk Institute. He also stressed the need for independent audits to identify security gaps.

Genady emphasized that assessing employee risk goes beyond phishing tests—it’s about understanding digital behavior patterns. Security needs to be a priority for leadership, not just the IT team. Integrating cybersecurity into daily routines, both at work and at home, strengthens defenses.

Ultimately, cybersecurity should be a shared responsibility, they explained. When everyone—from leaders to employees—is invested in security, your organization is better prepared to prevent fraud.

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3. Be “politely paranoid”

Rachel Tobac, an ethical hacker and founder of SocialProof Security, shocked the crowd with insight into how cybercriminals are exploiting texts, phone calls, and AI to commit fraud. She showed how easily she compromised a reporter’s accounts in minutes by exploiting weak passwords. 

Rachel also demonstrated AI voice cloning—and just how easy it is to spoof someone’s voice. These attacks are becoming harder to detect, which is dangerous news for any real estate professional who relies on voice verification.

Her advice? Be "politely paranoid"—always verify identities before acting on requests. Consider combining human caution with tools like DeleteMe and GoHush to protect sensitive information online. And regularly check your accounts to see if they’ve been breached on sites like HaveIBeenPwned.

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4. Learn how to adapt quickly

Matt O’Neill spent a long and industrious career with the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), heading the Global Investigative Operations Center (GIOC). Unlike other agencies, he explained, the USSS was founded specifically to combat financial crimes, which makes it excel at fighting fraud. Yet, despite efforts across the law enforcement community, the latest IC3 stats show fraud losses exceeding $12.5 billion—and rising.

The problem? Cybercriminals adapt quickly, and the internet is helping scale operations. Social media has become the linchpin of their operations to recruit money mules who help move stolen funds. For busy real estate professionals, this can feel like an impossible game to win.

But not all is lost. The key to staying ahead is staying aware, he explained. Fighting fraud means understanding that cybercriminals are constantly evolving. Staying informed, verifying identities, and using available solutions like CertifID can make all the difference.

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5. Stopping fraud means starting early

Our Senior Vice President of Product and Technology, Greg Slowiak, knows a thing or two about preventing fraud. For the last 25 years, he’s been building fraud prevention technologies. At Early Warning, he helped create a data network used by major banks and platforms like Zelle to detect fraud. He shared how proactivity is key to fraud prevention, and how CertifID is bringing these proven strategies to the title industry—using data networks to spot fraud patterns and secure transactions.

By applying these practices, we can identify fraud sooner and protect more funds. The ability to process, secure, and analyze data gives real estate professionals a crucial edge against evolving threats. For title professionals, taking advantage of these verification tools in your workflow means stopping fraud before it ever gets close to the closing table.

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6. Share knowledge regularly

Throughout the day, attendees also got together to share insights, strategies, and challenges related to their businesses’ overall security. A core part of these sessions involved addressing where cybersecurity feels necessary, but might create challenges. 

The main sentiment: it’s tough to get teams and transaction partners to slow down and embrace security—but it has to happen.

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Real estate is a fast-paced business. But businesses who push forward without verification are overwhelmingly exposed to risk. A fraudster wants nothing more than for you to overlook an imperceptible account number change, or believe you've seen that account before and don't need to check it.

For title agents, this means being more vocal about the “why” so partners and customers understand the benefits of slowing down and verifying information. 

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7. Evolve your process to create value

What can title firms learn from baking a cake? Ask Iain Bryant, President of Stewart Title’s Agency Division, who highlighted the importance of transformation within the title industry—paralleling the differences between a “good” cake and a “great” one.

His idea: While every cake is made from the same core components—four, sugar, butter—not all cakes are the same. What makes a great one is the baker’s ability to enhance its layers (e.g. better ingredients and more artistry) to create more flavor and joy.

Similarly, at first glance, many underwriters may appear the same. But companies like Stewart are taking a fresh approach by focusing on culture, team development, and a "jobs to be done" mindset that goes deeper and puts industry professionals’ needs first. Instead of chasing broad growth, they are refining processes to deliver more value to title agents, including introducing new services like their Agency Financial Advisory and Benchmarking Studies to support agents in a changing market.

The takeaway for title agents? Don’t settle for “OK.” Pursue a growth mindset and find like-minded partners to expand your value to customers.

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8. Protecting homeowners sets you apart

Our Executive Chairman and Co-founder Tom Cronkright closed the day by challenging title agents to embrace a new mission: protecting homeowners through identity verification.

Today’s tough market conditions and advanced cybersecurity threats demand top-notch execution and a relentless focus on consumer protection. It’s not easy, he explained, but it’s critical to the expanded mission of title agents.

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As Tom recalled, implementing tighter cybersecurity protocols at his title company Sun Title back in 2017 was a journey; there were gaps to overcome, lessons to learn, and habits to break. But the endgame was transformative for his business and turned his team into trusted community experts. 

Protecting homeowners shouldn’t just be a goal; it’s a commitment that sets successful organizations apart.

Identity verification is your strongest defense

Every insight from Live Wire pointed to one essential truth: protecting real estate transactions requires knowing exactly who and what you're dealing with. Whether it's combating AI-driven fraud, securing data networks, or staying agile against evolving threats, verifying identities is the key to safeguarding homeowners and transactions alike.

In a tough market, those who prioritize protecting the customer and execute consistently will be the ones who thrive. CertifID is ready to support you with the tools and strategies needed to execute that mission. Let’s take these lessons forward, protect every transaction, and build a stronger, safer real estate industry together in 2025.

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