e-Security

Phishing (E-mail Scams)

Phishing is a scam where bogus emails are sent to people in order to trick them into revealing personal or financial information. If an unwary person follows a link in the email, they will be taken to a fake web page, which will try to trick them into entering personal information such as a PIN, password, PPSN or bank account information. That information may be used in various ways, e.g. to apply for a credit card in the person's name or write cheques from their bank account. Phishing emails may pretend to come from government departments such as the Department of Education and Youth, as well as banks, credit card companies and online shops. They may contain realistic-looking logos and official-sounding text. They may even carry a warning about phishing.

The Department of Education and Youth will never send you an unsolicited email requesting you send your personal information via email or pop-up window.

Please note that your email address can often be found from publicly available sources, or randomly generated. Therefore if you receive a fake email that appears to be from the Department of Education and Youth, this does not mean that your email address, name or any other information has been gathered from the Department of Education and Youth systems. If you receive an unsolicited email purporting to be from the Department of Education and Youth with a link to a website you should ignore it.

Phishing (SMS Fraud – Smishing)

'Smishing' is the name given to fraudulent schemes whereby you are sent an SMS (text message) containing a link to a fraudulent website or a phone number in an attempt to collect personal information. Smishing attacks, whereby people are sent a text message with links to a fake website that look similar to the Department of Education and Youth website have been reported.

Please remember that the Department of Education and Youth will never send unsolicited text messages.

If you receive an unsolicited text message purporting to be from the Department of Education and Youth with a link to a website you should ignore it.

Secure Web Pages

Pages on https://cs.education.gov.ie which request personal information, are encrypted using an ssl certificate signed by GeoTrust. You can verify that the page is secure by looking for a padlock icon in your browser, as well as a range of visible signs.

Standard (Non-Secured) E-mails

The Department of Education and Youth does not recommend sending personal or confidential information by email. Email is sent via public networks, and can be intercepted and read unless it is protected with encryption. Please note that the Department of Education and Youth cannot guarantee that any personal and sensitive data, sent in plain text via standard email, is fully secure. Customers who choose to use this channel are deemed to have accepted any risk involved.

Personal Contacts

On meeting with customers, the Department of Education and Youth officers in the exercise of powers on outdoor duty are required to identify themselves, show their official Department of Education and Youth Identity Card and state the purpose of the meeting. Officers should also provide business cards showing the address and telephone number of their office and the customer should use this information to confirm the bona fides of the officer.