Uncommanded BIOS upgrade
I have a fairly new Dell Latitude E5530 laptop. It's never been used by anyone. We had purchased it for a specific project and then that project was cancelled.
I was using it a week or so ago to diagnose our new Internet connection. We had a new ISP and I was having trouble getting the new connection to work with our firewall. While talking with the ISP's tech support they asked me to grab a laptop and plug it in directly to the modem...which I did. I was concerned about connecting it directly to the Internet but I was diligent about not leaving it connected for more than a few minutes at a time. After each test was completed I would unplug it from the modem while awaiting further instructions from the ISP tech.
At some point, the screen went black. At first I thought it had shut down due to a depleted battery issue. But then I could see it came back on and started booting. The next thing I knew it appeared it was performing a BIOS upgrade. Now I am concerned about whether it's safe to connect this system to our LAN and expose our network to possible malicious software embedded in the BIOS.
Do some Dell systems perform uncommanded BIOS upgrades???
Should I restore it to factory settings? I'm not sure doing that will help if the BIOS has been compromised.
I was using it a week or so ago to diagnose our new Internet connection. We had a new ISP and I was having trouble getting the new connection to work with our firewall. While talking with the ISP's tech support they asked me to grab a laptop and plug it in directly to the modem...which I did. I was concerned about connecting it directly to the Internet but I was diligent about not leaving it connected for more than a few minutes at a time. After each test was completed I would unplug it from the modem while awaiting further instructions from the ISP tech.
At some point, the screen went black. At first I thought it had shut down due to a depleted battery issue. But then I could see it came back on and started booting. The next thing I knew it appeared it was performing a BIOS upgrade. Now I am concerned about whether it's safe to connect this system to our LAN and expose our network to possible malicious software embedded in the BIOS.
Do some Dell systems perform uncommanded BIOS upgrades???
Should I restore it to factory settings? I'm not sure doing that will help if the BIOS has been compromised.
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The ISP tech was not controlling the laptop. We were just using it to confirm he could "see" it connected to the modem and could ping it.
I will take your suggestion and re-flash the BIOS using the procedure you outlined.