Orange County, North Carolina, has its computer network up and running after an encryption virus was detected early March 17, forcing the county to shut down all its internal servers and leaving much of its services – including all closings processed by the Register of Deeds – unavailable until at least March 18. Read on for more details.

The Arkansas General Assembly has passed a bill that would require the disclosure on real estate transactions of any agricultural operations near the real property located in a rural area. The bill awaits the governor’s signature.

A Passaic County, N.J., man and a Bergen County, N.J., man have been arraigned for their respective roles in a reverse mortgage scheme that took advantage of several elderly homeowners. Read on for more details.

With reports of major companies’ abuse of personal information coming out constantly, and new laws emerging around the world and in various states, it’s important for those involved in the land records and real estate transfer industries to understand how these issues could impact how they operate. During the Property Records Industry Association’s Winter Symposium in Greenville, S.C. on Feb. 28, industry experts shared about land records history with data privacy, the potential impact of current laws on the books and the possible future of data privacy.

The Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill. County Department, Chancery Division, recently ruled in the Illinois Land Title Association’s (LTA) suit against the Cook County Recorder. The LTA had sued the recorder for refusing to record affidavits of heirship and affidavits of survivorship without also providing a copy of a probate court order. Read on for more details.

In a case involving wire fraud in a real estate transaction, a couple buying a retirement home in Arizona sued the bank which released funds in the fraudulent transaction, alleging that the bank aided and abetted the fraud by releasing the funds when it knew of potential fraud. The bank moved to dismiss, arguing that the wire transfer had been completed before the bank was put on notice. Read on for more.

The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s primary privacy and data security enforcer, released its annual report highlighting its privacy and data security work for 2018. Read on for more details.

A pro se defendant who lost his trial court lawsuit against servicers appealed to the Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 1, in California, alleging the lower court improperly dismissed his case concerning notice of the transfer of his loans. The appellate court upheld the lower court’s ruling, saying the borrower confused transferring responsibility for servicing the loan with assigning the beneficial interest in the loan.

A second defendant has pleaded guilty to a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme in New York. Read on for more details.