Many thanks to all who have used our services throughout 2019 and made it one of our best years ever.

We celebrated twenty years in business in November, and couldn’t have done it without the support of all of our clients. Thank you all.

We are closing tomorrow – Friday 20th – at 12.00, and won’t be back until January 3rd 2020.

We won’t be checking voicemail or mobile messages during this period, and the office will be closed.

Please have a safe and happy holiday.

Microsoft introduced Internet Explorer in 1995, and officially replaced it in 2015, with version 11 being the final one.

However, it is still available in Windows 10 if you look hard, although the Edge browser (introduced in Windows 10) would be Microsoft’s preferred alternative.

Many people still use Internet Explorer, but we’ve recently noticed that some basic functions in websites have become difficult or stopped working altogether while using it. We’ve seen difficulty in printing emails, accessing BT webmail, and have heard of issues logging into online forums and Facebook.

We think that if you are still using Internet Explorer that the time has come to change to a more modern browser that won’t give you problems and is less of a security risk. We recommend (and use) Google Chrome, however there are many alternatives such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera and of course Microsoft Edge.

It can be troublesome (although not impossible) to transfer favourites, saved password etc. from one browser to another, so if you feel that you need to change browser but aren’t too sure how to do it please come and see us 🙂

We’ll be closing tomorrow (July 11th) around 12.00, then will be off until Tuesday 16th.

The scammers don’t take holidays, so please be vigilant 🙂

We’ve also heard of several card “skimmers” in the local area, the most recent one was at the ATM at Tesco in Springhill, Bangor so take care there too.

 

We had a client on the ‘phone earlier today – they were scammed out of a lot of money last year by falling for the “this is BT” hoax call.

After intervention by the Banking Ombudsman, they are going to receive a full refund from the bank, who initially refused to help.

The robbers still have the original, stolen money, but at least our client is no longer out of pocket.

The ongoing “this is BT / TalkTalk / Microsoft – there is a problem with your router” scam has taken a new twist this week.

Some of the banks are now – finally – becoming aware of this, and are logging transactions (especially those over £10,000) as potentially suspicious. Once the flag is raised at the bank, they will try to contact you to find out if the transaction is genuine. As the person being scammed is usually on the phone to the thieves, the next point of contact is via a mobile.

The robbers are now aware of this too, and their “advice” is to please switch off your mobile phone as it is causing interference to your router. This is a nasty twist, as not only can the victim then not be contacted, they also can’t ring a third party if they are suspicious.

Please continue to tell anyone you know, especially older people or those who wouldn’t be too confident using any sort of online device that no-one will ever, ever ring them to say that there is a problem with any of their hardware.

After our last post about the significant data loss by one of our clients, we’ve had another fairly serious issue to deal with today.

A client phoned last night to say that all of their email in MS Outlook had “disappeared”. When we looked at the PC in question we found that it was infected with a ransomware Trojan, which has slowly but surely been encrypting their files for the last eight weeks or so, and has finally reached the email store folder. Its first job was to disable the anti-virus software installed on the computer.

There is a backup solution in place at this firm, however on this PC we were told “it stopped working a while ago”. The obvious question was “why did no-one tell us?” but today wasn’t the day for that.

The last good backup is from May this year, so there has been a good amount of work lost, as well as all of their email correspondence. The PC itself will need to be cleared of infection, what data is left checked and restored, and the whole thing reinstalled on site.

If you don’t already make at least one backup copy of your data, please, please do. You really don’t know what you have until its gone…

A big disaster today. One of our clients relies on a 3rd party EPOS system for invoicing, contacts and stock control.

Their Windows 10 PC was updating overnight, when (we think) there was a power cut which caused it to factory reset itself. All of their data is gone (barring a miracle) as their last backup of this system was in 2016.

They were under the assumption that it automatically backed itself up, which it does to a certain extent, but to the same hard disk on which it “lives”.

The long running “This is BT” telephone scam has reached new heights of sophistication.

We had a client in for help today who almost lost a lot of money, but thankfully caught on at the last minute and was able to freeze bank accounts before anything was taken.

This time it was the usual telephone call to begin with, claiming that the person called had a problem with their online security, their IP address had been “hacked” and the router compromised. A new router was allegedly en route, but in the meantime all of the security software on the (Windows based) computer had to be replaced with new and better versions in order to end the hacking.

The client then installed the perfectly legitimate TeamViewer remote access software, and the thieves then took control of the computer, removing all security software and then asking the client to access their online banking to process a “refund” from BT for the inconvience.

At this point our client became very suspicious, and ended the call, or so she thought. The scammers kept the line open, and when she called back to what she thought was a legitimate BT number was reconnected with them again (the call had never ended; it was merely muted by the robbers and a dialling tone played down the line), to the extent of a “press 1 for x, press 2 for y” system being the first thing she heard when “connected”.

She then asked them to disconnect the TeamViewer remote access while she logged in to her online banking to process the “refund”. They supposedly did, but we strongly suspect that the remote connection remained open in order to harvest the login details for the bank in question.

The “refund” was then processed, but was a far larger amount than had been previously stated on the telephone (the call was ongoing throughout the whole process, as well as the remote access) – several thousand pounds instead of the £200.00 promised. This appeared on the online banking summary screen, and when our client mentioned the amount the thieves then said that a mistake had been made in the amount of the “refund” and our client would have to repay the excess back to “BT”.

What had really happened is that the scammers had transferred our clients savings to her current account, then claimed that it was a mistaken “BT refund”, and were about to get her to transfer her savings and current account balance to them.

At this point our client became very suspicious, more so when the account details for the transfer were in an individual name and not a BT account, and thankfully was able to end the conversation and remote access to the computer before any money was taken.

The matter was reported to the PSNI, who have heard of at least £80,000 being stolen in this manner over the last two weeks. The bank account in question was also frozen, and all of the security settings will be changed before it is released.

The computer is currently with us to remove all of the remote access software planted on it and to have the security software reinstalled.

The scam has become very professional and sophisticated over recent months. The thieves now have a plausible answer for every question that the average computer user will put to them, and it seems now have a very clever means of having the money transferred to them by the account holder rather than stealing it directly. In a case like this the banks will wash their hands of the whole thing (not that they have been much help in our experience anyway) as the transfer was not done by a third party.

As we’ve said before, and will continue to shout from the rooftops, BT, Microsoft, Talk Talk or anyone else WILL NEVER, EVER, EVER contact you by telephone to advise you of a computer or telephone fault.

Anyone who claims to by from any of these – or any other – organisation is a liar and a thief, and the best thing you can do is to hang up without confirming any details.

Its hard to believe that its holiday time again, and the weather is even being kind this year 🙂

We’re closing today (6th July) for a week as usual, and will be open again on Monday 16th.

Thanks to all who have been to see us and used our services in the first half of the year, hopefully we will see you again, just not too soon.