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Ten Tips for Safer Emails
#21 - 2--naselfdefense--Ten Tips for Safer Emails--2008-03-29 05:32:36
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It seems that regular postal mail is quickly being replaced with electronic mail (email)
Well, maybe not replaced, but it certainly is giving the old post office some serious competition. After all... why spend the money on a stamp and envelope, then mail the letter out, then wait for it to be delivered, when you can email someone in an instant... practically for free.
Along with the convenience of email, come a few dangers as well...
- Starting with the inconvenience of unsolicited junk mail or SPAM, and continuing all the way up to malicious computer viruses that can destroy your entire hard drive.
Below are a few tips for safer emails...
1. Don't reply to ANY unsolicited emails. Even clicking the unsubscribe link will alert the senders that your email address is being used. Then your email may go on a list... and hundreds of spam emails may begin to follow.
2. Use your messaging software's filtering tools to reject mail from your frequent spammers' email addresses or with certain words in the subject linesuch as sex, or casino, for example. (unless you want those kinds of emails)
3. Find out if your ISP has a spam blocking service. If not, sign up for a third party spam blocking service.
4. Contact the large directory services such as Bigfoot, Infospace, Switchboard, Yahoo People Search, and whowhere, to tell them you don't want to be listed.
5. Encrypt and digitally sign all your sensitive email messages. If your messaging software doesn't support robust encryption, download PGP Freeware encryption software (http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html) and use that. *note: this address may be outdated, but there are many others out there.
6. Use WinZip (www.winzip.com) software to compress and password protect your attachments.
7. To avoid cookies sent via email, use email client software, such as Eudora Pro, that lets you shut off its automatic Web Browser rendering engine.
8. Don't read personal email on a machine that doesn't belong to you or someone you trust. If you use a browser to read email on someone else's machine, use the browser's Clear History tool when you finish to prevent subsequent users from getting into your mailbox.
9. Never open an attachment from someone you don't know. It may contain a virus. Even if you know the person, it's a good idea to scan all attachments for viruses before opening them
10. Keep your antivirus software updated at all times.
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