Fraud callers are using technology to become more innovative by the day.  Businesses and individuals must be on their toes to avert the threat to IT systems in Sussex, Surrey and elsewhere in the UK.  Data breaches needn’t cause a major issue if individuals keep their wits about them and have the appropriate software installed on their computers.

Hacked off!

Recently, TalkTalk, a major UK ISP (Internet Service Provider) had a huge data breach.  This led to some very detailed account information being leaked which the hackers are trying to exploit.  We were informed of a situation, where a customer had informed their ISP of a broadband problem they were having.  The next day a ‘member of staff from their provider’ made contact asking for access to their PC to fix the issue.  The caller had all of their account details and seemingly knew exactly what was going on.

Our customer allowed the caller onto his laptop remotely, but started to notice things happening that were slightly out of the ordinary such as passwords being changed for user accounts. When he was asking the caller what was going on, he got little response so pulled the battery from the laptop to abort the remote session.

When the laptop was turned back on, our customer was locked out with no means of accessing the files on the laptop.  All forms of back up for the last 6 months were also seemingly inaccessible.   He contacted us at nTrust desperate for help. Fortunately we were able to reset the passwords using specialist software, only to realise that there was no anti-virus software on the computer.  We installed the software, ran Anti-Virus and malware scans overnight and cleaned the machine thoroughly.  Our support team were then able to hand back the laptop a day later in perfect, working condition with all files intact.

Be Prepared

The data hacked from TalkTalk is just one of many breaches.  Here’s our Advice if someone calls ‘From Your ISP’:

-          Ask for their extension and call them back on the published number. Any number you cannot find on your ISP’s website should ring alarm bells.

-          Watch very thoroughly when anybody is on your machine remotely.

-          Disconnect anybody on a remote session if you are at all suspicious, and investigate it.

The most vital point, is to always… always have anti-virus software and up to date backups.

If your a family of PC Users, or a small business and you dont have Anti Virus software, or require help backing up your systems, contact us to discuss nCover. We are always happy to help. You can call us on 03331 50 60 70 or click Sign Up at the top of the page.