Data Breaches…. Watch your Back! a Word from your Solicitor

Data Breaches…. Watch your Back!

Watch your mail account, watch your IBAN and bank statement, and work with us as your Solicitor…..

Our banking procedures and learning:
Several years ago we were dealing with a client who was using Hotmail, while we were using our secure email accounts. An instruction came in to send €20,000 to the following account…. Fortunately, we received a telephone enquiry from the financial agent involved, who queried the instruction.

Further enquiries established the instruction had not come from the client at all, but that their email account had been hacked. We learned from IT Security advice that these hackers watch email traffic, and wait to pounce, intervene on existing correspondence between parties, and “dupe” them into making an unguarded response, to execute the requested banking transaction. Follow-up enquiries with the Gardai established that in fact the hacker was a known criminal in Ireland. Not all Internet crime is far away from you, you know!

Subsequently we introduced protocols including:
– recommendations to clients about using secure email communications
– Telephone cross checking on banking instructions.

A recent 2020 experience, established that on certain websites, a person can take someone else’s IBAN account number and input that number, to extract money from their account, to obtain financial benefit for the fraudster.

When we are dealing with your monies, we will take every precaution with you, to ensure that you are the sole beneficiary of your valuable monies. Talk to our solicitors about secure banking arrangements, when we are providing a legal service for you.

Claire McCarthy
Partner
Email: CMcCarthy@Binchylaw.ie