Real estate company gets hacked

Forget Ashley Madison: There’s another data breach with direct impact and fallout for the real estate industry

While the country is abuzz with talk about the Ashley Madison online hacking, another, smaller-scale breach is hitting closer to home for real estate professionals.

Reis Services, a Manhattan-based real estate company, is claiming an information thief in Texas is accessing its reports illegally, and has downloaded 798 of those reports worth $361,337 in total.

The company operates a database that contains information on 7,000 neighbourhoods in the United States.

And the case gets more interesting.

The suit claims the thief is using the login information of a “well-known Fortune Global 500 financial institution,” according to the New York Post. The individual is allegedly accessing the website from Austin, Tex.

Reis Services is seeking to recover that $300,000 in allegedly stolen reports, as well as punitive damages.

The company charges $999 for a single report on commercial properties and also offers a $150 subscription plan for user who wish to access regular reports on commercial real estate.

Data security has been a hot topic across the country following the hack of Ashley Madison, a popular online dating site for married individuals seeking adulterous connections.

Hackers stole account information on the site’s 36 million members in July and released the names of thousands of users last week.