IT security advice please

Grey

Grey

Senior Jockey
Joined
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Dublin
Yesterday I got a mail appearing to be from Bank of Ireland which aroused my curiosity. It said I should get online and confirm my details, which appeared to be out of date, that there appeared to have been a security breach. To the best of my knowledge I don't have any money in that bank although I used to many moons ago. When I clicked on the reply button the software at work intervened and blocked it because the mail address had the word 'game' in it. Obviously it hadn't come from the bank at all.

This morning I got a similar mail, this time from '365online', which I haven't opened, asking me to verify my identity.

I don't know why either mail would have come to my work address.

Apart from reporting the mails to our IT security people is there anything else to be done?
 
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Grey said:
Apart from reporting the mails to our IT security people is there anything else to be done?
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It sounds like someone who you have had communications with in the past got hacked. What you have said is the best thing to do, let the IT guys handle it.

Never click on any links in an email that you are wary of, instead go to the website itself or make a call to the bank.
 
Gareth is spot on.
It also might be you have been hacked at a basic level. Have you had a laptop or smartphone stolen or disposed of an old computer/phone? Bank of Ireland is a clue to something not current.
 
No, I've had nothing stolen or disposed of. In any case the mails came to my work address rather than my home one.

On a separate issue, do we all have to replace Windows xp from next week?
 
Arthur - I'm sending you an email. I have £25m i need you to look after for me. I only need your online banking details and your security questions, then i'll be able to complete the transfer. Good man.
 
Thanks, PJ, so sooner or later I'll have to give in to them and buy a new version.


Digger, I didn't know you had royal ancestry in Nigeria. Of course I'll help.
 
granger said:
Will still work Arthur but any new software developed wont be designed to be compatible with XP
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Grey said:
Thanks, PJ, so sooner or later I'll have to give in to them and buy a new version.
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Not necessarily. A lot depends on how happy you are with XP. If you turn off Windows automatic updates then you will carry on "as is". However, keep a check on anything that suddenly starts going wrong or doesn't work, if it gets to that stage then maybe it's time to get the wallet out.
 
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Yes! Laptops generally only break with your auto updates go on them. Security should be covered by a 3rd party product. Or just move to an Macbook and forget all your worries.
 
Agree with Digger entirely.
Certain security patches have caused more harm than good, VIsta SP2 was horrendous and rendered many PC's unusable.
Also a lot of the security patches are for Internet Explorer, and I'd be amazed if anyone still uses that browser.
It is well documented that viruses/malware etc are designed to target Windows operating systems over MAC/Linux (about 95%-5%).
Upgrading to a MAC is expensive but there are free options out there, a lot of the Opensource Linux OS's are perfectly good. Linux Mint/Ubuntu/Debian.
 
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