For years, the Mortgage Field Services Industry has refused to abide by any security regimens common in any other industry which operates with respect to US government contracting. Part of the blame has been the stranglehold which the National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) has had, until its recent collapse, and part has been the US government agencies and financial institutions whom have demanded, for years, a near slave labor level of workers. Certainly, the most recent security disaster is not the first caused by NAMFS members, but it is the first we are aware of that has impacted a HUD Awardee, JGM Property Group. It has been six days now since JGM’s emails were compromised. And to date, the only response has been from HUD to the International Association of Field Service Technicians (IAFST) whom brought the issue forward after receiving an unsolicited, compromised email from the account of Dawn Gill, a laid off Vendor Manager at JGM. The question that needs to be asked of JGM Property Group, while it hides behind its Woman Owned banner, is how in the hell did Gill’s email remain after being laid off, according to others laid off, and how in the hell were Gill’s HUD credentials never surrendered?
And while the quote below from a Senior HUD Official paints a picture of isolating HUD servers from attack, the reality is that Foreclosurepedia estimates that in upwards of 40 percent or more emails in the Industry should be considered compromised.
I have forwarded to both the Contracting Office and SFAM, and requested that they ensure that the System’s team is aware of the potential hack of JGM, so that they may take whatever steps are necessary to safeguard HUD systems. I believe all of our systems are under multifactor authentication at this point, so a password alone would not get them into any secure systems, absent a PIV/CAC card. Contractors are required to surrender any of the PIV/CAC cards for any separating employees immediately upon their departure. They also send an email to the System’s team to suspend their access. — Senior HUD Official
This Industry has been New York’s novelty and California’s playtoy for decades. In fact, a review of the inordinate amount of funds pumped in by lobbyists into the Industry amount to the budget of Norway by many accounts. And it is the pumping of those funds into the pockets of #TwoForVerisk NAMFS Executive Director Eric Miller and NAMFS President Matt Zoldowski along with the campaign funds of the Secretaries of HUD, USDA, and VA the reality is that they have all but eviscerated the Industry. In keeping the wages of Labor below poverty rate and subsidizing their earnings with food stamps much like Walmart, all was well until the volumes collapsed. And as the Industry began to lose money and could no longer focus fraud upon Labor as a budgetary line item, security began to be offloaded upon Labor’s shoulders, as well. The problem was that while the National Order Mills had no idea what they were doing with technology, it was even worse for Labor whom didn’t have the money to implement it.
For years, the US government has rewarded, hand over fist, the graft, greed and corruption within the distressed asset space for far too long. Cycling a series Cabinet level officials in and out of the public sector is one of the worst grievances that the US taxpayer has against the US government. In the case of special interest groups such as Gatehouse Strategies, financed, in part, by NAMFS, have run amok creating safe havens of cash for Management and forgetting whom actually does the work. Their shameless money grab from Fannie Mae to pad the pockets of Management, whom have strangled the necks of Labor, has not gone unnoticed. With tens of millions of dollars in wage increases for Management and not a penny for Labor, the real question is will Gatehouse Strategies be able to find illegal aliens to perform the three dollar inspections which still roll out today.
The real world has finally come to visit this Industry. And the irony is that all of that regulatory compliance which Management shoved down on Labor’s back, by order of the NAMFS Regime, to ensure ultimate profits has contributed to the single greatest threat to our Nation’s housing market since Communism. Actually, that is an understatement. The Industry, itself, is the threat. And it is not only the fact that a second year hacker could vector the Industry to its knees, it is the fact that the financial sponsor of NAMFS, Verisk, has been allowed to create an antitrust playground leaving only one option for software. Even HUD acknowledged this; however, they are neutered to such a point as they are terrified to open their collective mouths. Here is what a Senior HUD Official had to say,
I don’t know that it would move into the Anti-Trust space yet, but it does certainly appear to be headed in that direction. The price hikes as they gobble up the competition would certainly help lay the groundwork for an Anti-Trust case. Either way, it does certainly raise certain security concerns. I know that it’s at least on HUD’s radar, as it came up in an internal meeting I was in a couple weeks back where concerns were raised.
Under the leadership of #TwoForVerisk NAMFS Executive Director Eric Miller and NAMFS President Matt Zoldowski, it could be inferred that their lack of interest in protecting their Clients such as US government agencies and financial institutions may be false flags on behalf of Verisk. More on point, though, there is no doubt that the NAMFS leadership — if you want to call it that — have sold out not only their membership, but our national security, as well. To be clear, this issue has been well known by NAMFS and the US government for years. And with GoDaddy’s latest release in its SEC filings confessing to the problems, one has to wonder in the wisdom of allowing HUD Awardees to continue business with them let alone allowing GoDaddy hosted domains, email, or otherwise anywhere near the Industry. Perhaps Gatehouse Strategies could tell us about it.
GoDaddy revealed in a statement on Thursday it had discovered that hackers inside its systems had installed malware on its network and stolen parts of its code. The company says it became aware of the intrusion in December 2022 when customers—the company hasn’t said how many—began reporting that their websites were being mysteriously redirected to other domains. GoDaddy says it’s investigating the breach and working with law enforcement, who have told the company that the hackers’ “apparent goal is to infect websites and servers with malware for phishing campaigns, malware distribution, and other malicious activities.”
It gets worse: GoDaddy revealed in an SEC filing that it believes the hackers are the same group that it found inside the company’s networks in March 2020, and which had stolen the login credentials of 28,000 customers and some of GoDaddy’s staff. Then in November 2021, the hackers used a stolen password to compromise 1.2 million customers’ WordPress instances, getting access to email addresses, usernames, passwords, and, in some cases, their websites’ SSL private keys. “Based on our investigation, we believe these incidents are part of a multiyear campaign by a sophisticated threat actor group,” the filing reads.
The time for scratching of the heads and kind words is long gone. The attack upon the International Association of Field Service Technicians (IAFST) lies directly at the proverbial feet of JGM Property Group. And while JGM’s CEO Joyce Milaszewski and her lackey COO Brandon Kirkham are no strangers to controversy, this time there is no blaming Labor for Management’s problems. It’s not the first rodeo with these hacks, but depending upon how it goes down, it may be their last. Time and again, failures like Milaszewski and Kirkham shove their problems off on Labor going all the way back to the Carol Boyd days. And until now, people like these have been able to sweep everything underneath the NAMFS rug. Not this time. This time, Milaszewski and Kirkham targeted the IAFST. Their actions or inactions are all the same and only matter with respect to what degree of liability their insurance is liable.
How JGM Property Group chooses to move forward is in their hands. An apology, at minimum, goes a long ways, but as both Milaszewski and Kirkham are long past their prime, it may be hard to teach these old dogs new tricks. Personally, although I do not speak for the IAFST Board, I would rather see them bankrupt and pissing in Mason jars.
More on this and the failure of JGM Property Group tomorrow!
