The NAUGHTY Step – IT Support Episode 18

So has your bank put you on the naughty step?  Are you having trouble accessing your online banking? This week Captain Christian refers back to the demise of Windows 7, and why it is REALLY important that you’re not using it anymore.

We all know that at times there are things that just climb up the importance ladder, and somethings that slip down it. But this is IMPORTANT and shouldn’t be sliding down the ladder!

In this episode I refer to your online banking and what the banks are doing to help protect YOUR money, and we’re trying to protect you and your data as well.

“The NAUGHTY step!” – IT Support Episode 18

Hi, I’m Christian from “Northstar IT” and this week I want to talk about The NAUGHTY step!

So a couple of weeks ago we were approached by a prospective new client. They were having a problem with their online banking. It wouldn’t appear to enable them to log on anymore. So they called us in.

They’re a neighbouring business not far from here. I guess it made sense to call one of the neighbours. So, maintaining social distancing we collected the PC from the doorstep and brought it back for testing. We quickly found out that it was highly likely one of the reasons that they weren’t able
to log into their online banking anymore was the fact that they’ve still been using a computer with “Windows 7”.

For those of you who’ve been paying attention “Windows 7” came to an abrupt end. Wasn’t exactly headline news, because we’d been talking about it for so long at the beginning of the year, in the case of this particular bank they’ve been flagging up a warning for a number of months that they will no longer support “Windows 7” and if you continue to try and log in they will sooner or later block you.

The reason for this is Microsoft has ceased all support for “Windows 7” which means it no longer receives any security updates or patches. Which you could compare it to a bit like a colander. Potentially, people are finding security holes in it to take advantage of. Now I don’t know about you, but you wouldn’t want to use a colander as a flask.

So, would you want a leaky Operating System to look after your data?

Or more importantly, your money?

So in this case it was an easy solution, they could either upgrade the computer or replace it with a swanky, new, super fast “Windows 10” based one,
with newer technology, faster components so that they can do their work more efficiently. Now they did the sensible thing, they opted for a new machine.

But in some cases, whether it be for affordability or a faster turnaround, we can also do upgrades too.

So now they’re using an ultra secure computer to access their banking quickly, efficiently and most importantly – successfully.

So if you want to stay OFF the naughty step with your bank, speak to your IT support company and make sure all of your “Windows 7” computers are comfortably, safely and with the ultimate peace of mind retired.

Until next time!