Bulletin: AR2022001

Dear Associates:

We have been made aware of a cybersecurity breach that has taken place within the Apprentice Information Systems, Inc. (AIS) service used in several counties across the State of Arkansas. It was reported that this breach would be resolved by the end of the week, but we now expect it to continue past this initial deadline. At least 40 Arkansas counties use this records service in some capacity, but the impact will vary from county to county depending on each county’s use. Some counties use the service solely for tax collection records, while others may use the service for land records in the Circuit Clerk’s office. Due to the different impact to each county, it is unclear how long it will take to resolve the issue and bring each county back online.

If you are handling a transaction in a county that has been impacted, please inform your Stewart Underwriting Counsel and also your State Agency Manager. If the recording office in your county is accepting recordings manually, please revise any current commitments to require a gap indemnity to be signed by the buyer and seller in the transaction. A Gap Indemnity Agreement is provided here. You will need to inform the lender on any transaction affected that there will be some delay in providing them with recording information for their transactional documents. In addition to our standard over limits request approval, please make a note in the over limits request form additional comments section if your transaction is impacted.

If you are handling a transaction in a county where they are refusing documents for recording, please contact your Stewart Underwriting Counsel for approval.

If you have any questions relating to this or other bulletins, please contact a Stewart Title Guaranty Company underwriter.

For on-line viewing of this and other bulletins, please log onto www.vuwriter.com.