Usage of technology in real estate sector: Worth it?

It is no news that when pandemic struck, way of life was quite detestably altered, not much to everyone’s liking. Given the virulent nature of the pandemic, physical interactions and travel were strictly monitored and restricted. It is noteworthy to decipher here, that this had led to unprecedent contraction in the economic activities, especially in contact intensive sector like beauty, aviation and hospitality sector. But it is to be noted that other sectors like manufacturing, real estate and construction too took a huge hit due to stringent lockdown that were placed in the economy to curb the virulent nature of the virus.

Though the adoption of property technology during the adverse times of the pandemic can be termed as innovation at its pinnacle, but it cannot be denied that with smarter, more innovative technology comes risk. As the world turned virtual as the pandemic struck, online mode became the new normal. But given the huge cybersecurity risk that comes with the increased usage of technology and given the incompetent cybersecurity laws in the country, the real estate owners must consider the risks, and therefore strengthen their resilience against an increasing threat.

Technology, as we know, has long been in use across the retail sector. The technology has been in greater use in certain areas like in footfall metrics and in catchment area analysis. Other innovative technology that is used by the real estate sector to get deeper insight into the consumer behavior within malls is Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT).

But again, as aforementioned, this effectively presents numerous opportunities for cyber criminals to exploit. Cyber risks are insurmountable due to lower detection and new proliferating techniques. Additionally, another bigger threat is the huge ransom that is asked for retrieving your data. Given the new proliferation technique and the incompetent and weak cybersecurity laws, the threat becomes inevitable for the technology adopters to identify these risks, mitigate them, or transfer them where appropriate.

But not everything is as glim as might have been recently described. Technology also promises greater efficiency and sustainability in modern office buildings. This efficiency of the technology can emphatically lead to faster delivering of both operational savings for owners and an improved user experience for office tenants.

Proptech: curse or a boon ?

Why does security breaches in real estate sector pose greatest and most aversive risks? This is due to the fact that the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices offers numerous cybersecurity breach potential for a cyber-attack due to the nature of the mammoth business. The IoT can lead the cyberbully to gain access to a buildings ecosystem and infrastructure and this can potentially lead to business interruption, a ransomware demand, which can be a hefty one, or significant health and safety concerns.

What poses as a real challenge in the effective mitigation of disaster of such a threat is that a complex industry such as Real Estate cannot effectively implement data protection controls into daily operating procedures. Close alignment is required across people, technology and processes to enable controls across all the three pillars. Here, it is also interesting to note that that 90% of cyberattacks and breaches result from general human errors or social engineering account.

Then how can such an odious enemy of cyber threat be conquered? The threat can be mitigated through cyber advisory and risk transfer solutions, including the identification of cyber threats and evaluation of appropriate insurance limits. Additionally, making clients aware of the humongous financial risk can be a start. But in the long run, robust cybersecurity laws and mitigation policy is required. But how fast it is delivered, is yet to be seen.