Introduction

If you are still using one if these operating systems:

  • Windows 8
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows XP
  • Windows Me, 2000, 98, 95 or earlier

Many features of Payback will start to become unavailable starting from 1 Jan 2024.

This is because these operating systems are no longer secure enough to support these functions. Amazon no longer allows unpatched versions of these operating systems (running less than TLS1.2) to connect to their mail server. If you try to send pay slip emails you will get this error message:

The message could not be sent to the SMTP server. The transport error code was 0x800ccc6f. The server response was 554 Access denied: Amazon SES no longer supports TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 connections. You must update your client to use TLS version 1.2 or above. To learn more and to update your client, see https://go.aws/3AUlVSb. For further assistance, contact AWS support

 From October 2024 onwards, your digital certificate in Payback will also stop functioning. This is because Microsoft will make it so you can't connect to Azure on an operating system running less than TLS1.2

Technical Information

It is a security issue causing this problem. 'TLS 1.2' is a secure way of connecting to the email server, that Windows 7 does not support because it is so old. It is possible to update Windows 7 to default to TLS 1.2, but it is a complicated procedure where you have to access registry settings and install patches. 
It is likely that other applications, not just Payback, that rely on the internet will also gradually stop working.

Solutions

Continue using Payback, but do not use the Payback server to email payslips. From Oct 2024 onwards, you'll have to manually upload RPNs and submit PSRs via ROS.ie

  • Move to Cloudpay, our online system, that you'll still be able to use through your computer. However, your browser may also be outdated.
  • Update your existing computer to Windows 10 or Windows 11. Note that your hardware may be too old for this to succeed.
  • Preferred solution: Move Payback to a computer using a newer operating system, such as Windows 10 or Windows 11

 

The preferred solution is to use a new operating system because Microsoft has stopped supporting earlier operating systems and have stopped sending security updates. This means that if you use these older operating system to connect to the internet, you would be very vulnerable to attack.