Although Finland is a highly digitized country, there are still many sectors where a person cannot conduct their business digitally. One such industry is the housing market. A particularly good example of this is the market for Finnish housing companies, where not much has changed in the last hundred years: the owner of each apartment in a housing company is marked on a paper share certificate that is stored in a bank, and whenever an apartment changes hands, these certificates must be updated manually. When a sale is to be finalized, the share certificate is transferred from one owner and bank to another, and the parties must sign the necessary documents at a particular bank.
The DIAS platform, built by Tomorrow Tech, has brought the housing market to the digital age. When the buyer's and seller's banks and the real estate agent's brokerage system are on the DIAS platform, none of the parties involved need to visit any bank when an apartment is sold.
The trade itself is conducted on the DIAS platform: the real estate agent initiates the transaction, and after each bank's inspection, the seller and buyer sign the deed digitally. After the deed has been signed, the banks can manage the necessary payments and the transfer of ownership directly on the DIAS platform.
DIAS is based on blockchain technology, meaning that the progress and the result of trade are visible to all parties involved. "Digital housing trades are faster, more transparent, and smoother than traditional housing deals," says Sami Honkonen, CEO of DIAS.
Nixu was responsible for DIAS' technical security audit. The audit was based on best practices and utilized a number of reference frameworks used in the cybersecurity sector. Nixu reviewed each user interface in the different versions of the application and examined the configurations used for every API. The maintenance services for third parties were also audited. The parties responsible for bank compliance approved DIAS for launch in June 2019. Currently, 96% of the Finnish housing loan market is included in the service.
"As a cybersecurity company, it has been great to be involved in the DIAS project because it has such a significant impact on the society and the housing market. Our co-operation is a good example of how we can build a secure digital society together," Tommi Vihermaa, lead of Nixu's Security Engineering, sums up.
