M id A tlantic Real Estate Journal — Spring Preview — April 2026 — 5
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By Carl Mazzanti, eMazzanti Technologies Is your commercial real estate firm protected against wire fraud?
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ilford Entities/Man - agement Companies — a New York City
virtualized environment], closing the gaps attackers ex- ploit before a fraudulent mes- sage ever reaches an inbox. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is equally essential, though hardware-indepen - dent MFA platforms provide far stronger protection than SMS-based text codes alone. SIEM and SOC: 24/7 Threat Detection for CRE Organizations Additional layered defenses include Security Informa - tion and Event Management (SIEM), which aggregates log data from across a CRE
organization’s entire environ- ment and applies behavioral analytics to surface anomalies — unusual account access, unexpected data transfers, unrecognized login locations — before they escalate into a breach. A Security Opera - tions Center (SOC), staffed by certified analysts around the clock, investigates SIEM alerts and contains threats in real time. For CRE firms that cannot maintain an internal security team, a managed SOC delivered through an MSP provides enterprise- grade response capability at
a fraction of the in-house cost. Employee Awareness Training: Closing the Human Gap Technology defends at the network level, but employ - ees authorize wire transfers. Trained staff who can spot suspicious requests before act- ing on them are a critical last line of defense. Training must be ongoing and scenario-based — attackers refine their tactics continuously, and awareness programs must keep pace. CRE organizations must work closely with a qualified MSP to assess current vulnerabilities,
deploy the right technologies, and build a security posture that protects clients, transactions, and reputation. The cost of wire fraud and other prevention is a fraction of the cost of a breach — and CRE organizations that engage with an MSP today will gain a significant advantage over cybercriminals. Carl Mazzanti is president of eMazzanti Technologies in Hoboken, NJ, providing IT Consulting and Cyber- security Services for busi- nesses ranging from home offices to multinational corporations. MAREJ
organization that owns and man- ages luxury properties like Liberty View and Liberty Luxe in Battery Park City —
Carl Mazzanti
believed it was wiring a $19 million payment for PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) and other expenses to the Battery Park City Author- ity (BPCA). But according to published reports, the July 2025 transfer instead went into the account of a cyber- criminal who had imperson - ated a BPCA employee and instructed Milford to wire the funds to a new bank account. This kind of attack, com - monly known as Business Email Compromise (BEC), is one of the most prevalent threats facing Commercial Real Estate organizations, according to eMazzanti Tech - nologies’ CRE cybersecurity report. Artificial intelligence has given bad actors un- precedented capabilities to launch deepfake attacks, clone identities, and execute large-scale data breaches — but a layered defense, deployed through an experi- enced Managed Services Pro - vider (MSP), can protect your organization against wire fraud, BEC, and other crip- pling threats, which the FBI estimates drove $21 billion in losses in the U.S. alone. Why AI Has Made BEC Worse — and How Email Protection Fights Back AI-powered attack tools now clone writing styles from archived emails, mine calendars to time fraudulent messages around closing dates and payment cycles and generate highly person- alized wire fraud requests at scale. Traditional skepti - cism is no longer a reliable defense; but advanced email protection platforms counter this threat through domain spoofing detection [that flag forged emails or fake web - sites that impersonate le- gitimate brands], AI-driven behavioral analysis, and at- tachment sandboxing [where email attachments are ini- tially opened and inspected in a secure, isolated, and C M Y CM MY CY CMY K
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