Estate agents must be ready to fend off more hackers trying to compromise their IT systems following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, property industry software firm Veco has warned.

The warning follows the recent call by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) for all businesses in the UK to bolster their online defences as Russian hackers ramp up their activities.

Also, the government’s intelligence organisation GCHQ says it is concerned over a ‘spillover’ from any heightened Russian cyber-activity in Ukraine, as demonstrated by last week’s attack on two banks by hackers linked to Russia’s spy agency.

Although there have been no Ukraine-related Russian attacks on the UK since the start of the crisis, Veco says cyber-specialists have been holding meetings with key companies to discuss the possible threat and how it could be tackled.

“Agents need to be extra vigilant at this time and ensure they have educated their staff on the risks and have implemented the measures that will boost their protection,” says Duwayne Lake, Operations Director of Veco.

Heightened alert

“Moving to heightened alert can help agents prioritise necessary cyber security work, offer a temporary boost to defences and give agents the best chance of preventing a cyber attack when it may be more likely, and recovering quickly if it happens.”

Lake says the key ways to bolster an estate agency’s defences including always using strong passwords, having biometric locks on all company smartphones, ensuring a company’s website domain is securely registered, ensuring that staff are careful when giving suppliers access to their servers, educating staff about phishing emails and ensuring company email addresses are not available publicly.