First American May Have Exposed Millions Of Client Records

First American Financial Corp., one of the largest U.S. title insurers, may have allowed unauthorized access to more than 885 million records related to mortgage deals going back to 2003, according to a security researcher.

The flaw was outlined Friday in an article by Brian Krebs, a cybersecurity expert. Digitized records including “bank-account numbers and statements, mortgage and tax records, Social Security numbers, wire transaction receipts and driver’s license images were available without authentication to anyone with a web browser,” he wrote.

In a statement, First American said that it learned of a “design defect in one of its production applications that made possible unauthorized access to customer data” and has shut down external access.