The UK property market is one of the largest and most important in the world and protecting its integrity requires a careful balance between any reforms and security, according to a newly formed ‘Conveyancing Task Force’ (CTF), as the government considers how it might reform home buying and selling through its recent consultation.
Formed in the wake of the home buying and selling consultation, the CTF has called on the government to prioritise cybersecurity as a matter of national infrastructure; reconsider aspects of the open data agenda that expose the system and property lawyers to unnecessary risk; and ensure that the costs of resilience are shared proportionately, rather than by property lawyers alone.
Its spokesperson, Stephen Larcombe said lessons must be learnt from incidents both abroad and in the UK where cyber criminals have attacked and paralysed organisations with ransomware.
Earlier this year the Slovakian Land Registry was the victim of a cyber attached which ‘paralysed its operations and disrupted property transactions nationwide’ said Larcombe. Closer to home, the recent attacks on industry and government departments (the Legal Aid Agency most recently) should serve as a ‘stark reminder’ of the scale of the threat which includes ransomware, state sponsored attacks, artificial intelligence enabled social engineering, and long term campaigns by Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). Larcombe added:
“The property system, which underpins transactions worth billions of pounds, cannot be immune. The UK Land Registry, as a critical part of national infrastructure, faces similar risks. The CTF stresses that resilience must be treated as a priority, with layered protections such as multi factor authentication and zero trust architectures embedded across the system.”
The CTF says efforts to digitise conveyancing, including the current open data agenda, while aiming to improve efficiency, will introduce ‘fresh vulnerabilities’ through the ‘digital networks conveyancers would be compelled to join.’ Property lawyers will also be forced to absorb the costs and risks of participating in new digital networks as part of these efforts adds Larcombe, including through the prospect of mandatory cybercrime insurance.
“While insurance may provide a financial backstop, it does not prevent attacks. For many firms, particularly smaller practices, the additional cost of cover would represent a significant burden. There is also a danger that the requirement would create a false sense of security, shifting attention away from the need for robust, system wide protections.”
The CTF believes that lawyers should not be ‘left to underwrite vulnerabilities created by flawed policy choices.’ Instead, risk should be managed proportionately, with government, regulators, and the law tech sector bearing the brunt of any such ‘reforms’. They are calling for a balanced approach to reform which combines the much needed improvements in the home mover experience, alongside resilience and a robust to security. Larcombe concludes the CTF will ‘continue to provide expert insights to ensure that this balance is achieved.’
An HM Land Registry spokesperson said:
“At HM Land Registry, we have further strengthened our cyber security posture to reduce the risk of a major cyber-attack. We have made more progress in improving our control framework, ensuring it remains aligned with Government policies and standards. Key developments include the continued maturing of our Security Control Library, the growth of our internal network of security champions, and greater emphasis on building a cyber- aware culture across the organisation. Additional mitigations have been introduced to improve governance, security culture as well as maintaining controls to ensure only authorised individuals can access HM Land Registry hardware, software and services.
“These actions form part of a broader, ongoing strategy to embed robust cyber security governance and maintain the resilience of our infrastructure, safeguarding our people and customers.”
This article was updated on 29th October to include comments from HM Land Registry.
