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BSC AND ELECTRIC IRELAND
June/July 2013 www.esb.ie/em
GETTING READY FOR SEPA
AS YOU MAY BE AWARE from advertising on newspapers, radio and TV, SEPA is coming and at ESB we are making sure we are ready.
WHAT CHANGES ARE REQUIRED?
In Ireland, the traditional six-digit sort code and eight-digit account number will no longer be acceptable and will be replaced by a BIC and IBAN. Electronic payments (e.g. payroll payments, supplier payments) to banks, and all direct debit mandates will be required to make format changes.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO MEET THE FEBRUARY 1ST 2014 DEADLINE?
ESB commenced a project in early 2013 to address the challenges of SEPA implementation. The project board consists of representatives from all the relevant business areas affected by SEPA. We have a number of projects underway addressing the issue for the various parts of the business. Some projects are more advanced than others, but we are planning on having full SEPA compliance by Q4 2013.
The first project that will become fully compliant with SEPA is the vendor payments process. In total, ESB receives over 90,000 vendor invoices per annum which are paid by electronic funds transfer via Danske Bank. To become SEPA compliant, ESB has converted all their vendor bank accounts to BIC and IBAN and the payment transfer instruction files have been updated to SEPA XML format. Testing has been completed and we are expecting to go live on May 16th 2013. This is a major achievement for ESB and guarantees our vendors will continue to be paid. It also puts ESB as one of the early adaptors for SEPA compliant vendor payments.
The project team has also been working since late 2012 in Electric Ireland to facilitate the smooth conversion of direct debit (DD) details to SEPA standard. This will allow Electric Ireland to collect domestic and cross-border direct debits across 32 countries in a single file. The SEPA DD scheme also requires a revised mandate format for all new DD customers. The project team has recently completed testing the new format with payee banks and other financial institutions. This project is expected to go live in June.
Other areas which are undergoing SEPA compliance include ESB payroll (salaries and pensions) and Medical Provident Fund. Planning for these projects is underway with expected completion dates in Q3 2013. For salaries and pensions, no action is required by staff or pensioner with respect to account details.
As you can see, SEPA compliance is well advanced in ESB. We are working to ensure that the conversion is seamless to all our customers and suppliers.
Should you have any questions on SEPA for ESB, please contact the Project Manager Allison Morris, or Emmett Dunleavy in the BSC.
WHAT IS SEPA?
The single euro payments area (SEPA) is a mandatory change by the EU, which will standardise the electronic payments process across the 32 signed-up countries, including Ireland. Once SEPA migration has been completed, it will be a major step towards a borderless payment system across SEPA countries. Common standards, faster settlement and simplified processing will improve cash flow, reduce costs and facilitate access to new markets. The deadline for compliance with SEPA is February 1st 2014.
IS SECURITY
Phishing
What is it?
IN TODAY'S BUSY WORLD with ever-increasing types of - and the sheer quantity of - internet-based communications, phishing is becoming more and more of a problem. Phishing is when criminals use social engineering in the form of emails, text messages or phone calls, claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise, in an attempt to scam a person into surrendering private information. This then leads to identity theft with the end goal of stealing money from the target, e.g. you.
Phishing emails have evolved from the badly composed emails of a few years ago to sophisticated social engineering tools. A recent example involved an extremely professional looking fake email claiming to be from the a well known Irish bank and asking the recipient to verify their 24-hour banking log-on details. While the email looked genuine, the link in the email took the unsuspecting recipient to a website hosted in Vietnam where their banking login details would be gathered.
Telephone calls and texts are also now being used in an attempt to gather confidential information from unsuspecting people. There have recently been examples of legitimate looking texts being sent to ESB mobiles with links to unscrupulous sites.
What to look for?
• ESB's IS security systems successfully blocks the majority of these types of emails from entering the corporate IT infrastructure. However, a small number may get through and you will need to take specific precautions in order to protect yourself. This also applies to any private email account you may operate. Here are some tips to help you to spot a phishing attack.
• Are you currently with, or have you ever, dealt with the supposed email sender? Ask yourself, ‘How do they have my address?’ Is the suspect email asking for or you to update information they should already have? For example: personal information, such as passwords and credit card, RSI number, and bank account numbers. Is something like ‘Dear Customer’ used? - i.e. they do not know your real name.
• Is the spelling and grammar in the email correct?
• Do the links in the email go to the website you would expect? If you hover over the link you will see where it will direct you to. Never click on a link unless you are satisfied of its validity.
• Does the email contain threats? E.g. ‘Your account will be disabled'. This type of scare tactic is employed to get the maximum number of recipients to give up their details.
What to do?
If you are ever unsure if an email is genuine or not, contact who you believe the sender to be using your own contact details rather than the ones from the email. They should be able to confirm if the email is genuine. If you are sure it is fake, and it has arrived into your ESB email inbox, then please forward it to Spam Monitor (Business Service Centre) where the IS security team can investigate.
WOMEN'S HOCKEY LEAGUE FINAL
SEAN WALSH, ELECTRIC Ireland presenting the Electric Ireland Irish Hockey League Trophy to Railway Unions' Emer Lucey and Jean McDonnell. The final with Loretto finished 3-3 and Railway emerged victorious after their penalty shot win.
To the end of the Earth for Ronnie
» IT colleague runs entire length of Camino in memory of his mum.
WICKLOW NATIVE and IT Developer in BSC, Niall Roche, lost his mother to a brain tumour in early 2012. He and his family subsequently set up Brain Tumour Ireland, the first nationwide organisation dedicated to brain tumours in Ireland.
Niall has just completed an epic challenge to honour his mother's memory, and to raise awareness, both of the incidence of brain tumours and the work of Brain Tumour Ireland.
Niall ran the entire length of the Camino, starting in St Jean Pied de Port, passing through the customary Camino end point of Santiago de Compostela and reaching his own personal finish line in Cape Finisterre (which means end of the earth) in the third week of May. This is the equivalent of running 22 marathons in three weeks!
Niall said: “I had always thought I would take mum on a holiday just to say thanks for everything she had done for me over the years. Since I'm not really much of a shopper or a spa weekend kind of guy, I thought a few days walking the Camino in Spain might be something we would both enjoy and would be a good way to spend some time together; walking and chatting. But you always think you have all the time in the world and as too often happens life got in the way, the holiday never happened and time unfortunately ran out for mum.”
He continues: “So in tribute to mum's strength and determined spirit, and with the hopes of raising awareness and funds for Brain Tumour Ireland, I decided to run all 908km of the Camino past Santiago to the coast. My final destination Finisterre, means end of the earth-and so I called the challenge ‘To the End of the Earth for RonnieNiall Roche in action. and Brain Tumour Ireland'.
Niall, who turned 32 during the challenge, maintained a blog page to keep supporters at home in Ireland up-to-date with his progress.
