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Most of us consider email an essential part of life these days. Unfortunately this popularity has led to an increase in viruses and fraud and it's important that you learn to protect yourself from these kinds of threats before it's too late.
Viruses
You should always be careful when opening an attachment from anyone, even someone you know well. Email viruses often arrive as part of an email attachment; they infiltrate address books and send infected e-mail to everyone in your address book so it's possible for you to receive a virus from a colleague or friend and it's possible for them to receive a virus from you.
Ideally, if you know you'll be sending attachments you should let the person know that you're sending an attachment so they know that it is safe to open as well. It's ideal if your contacts can return this favor too so everyone knows what's going on.
If you're concerned about email viruses the best thing you can do is to add anti-virus software to your computer (you should have this already in reality). The software scans every e-mail that you receive. This is especially relevant if you work in an environment where the computers are networked because of the viruses downloaded onto one computer it can infect the entire network and cause a massive amount of damage.
Phishing
Another popular security risk also arrives via email. This one is called 'phishing' and tricks the recipient into disclosing personal information and passwords. These e-mails often use the logos of a financial institution, online retailers and others to trick you into believing that the e-mail is real.
When you receive one of these phishing e-mails you will usually be told that the financial institution or other company needs a password or financial information from you. You'll be asked to click on a link in the e-mail which will send you to a third-party site and you will be asked to input your credit card information, PIN or your password information.
To determine if an e-mail is a phishing e-mail you can look at the text that comes along with the e-mail you receive. You will not be addressed by name but rather as a 'valued customer' or 'friend' - this should set off alarms straight away.
Another tipoff is you'll find a link that doesn't correspond to the text describing it. For example, if you check the status bar when you highlight the link the text might say something like Microsoft but the URL will be something completely different such as .don't go here.com.
There are specialized software programs that can detect phishing but they're not always as accurate as you would like them to be. The best solution for this is to simply be on your guard, not click on any links that look suspicious and certainly not give any personal information such as passwords or credit card information. If you really believe that the e-mail is on the up and up you can call the company and provide information that way.
Back up your email
Just like any other data, email should be backed up, on a regular basis. It can be easily done by exporting messages to a folder and backing up the folder with a backup program. The data will be backed up onto a removable disk, a writable DVD or CD or other kind of backup media.
If you want more assurance, you can purchase a backup e-mail program that will eliminate you having to do all the backing up yourself.
Are you worried sick about the threats that are out there waiting to harm your computer and your private information? You should be worried! A single virus can cause mayhem on your computer and destroy years of work or memories. Learn how to protect your PC with computer security programs that will let you surf and enjoy your computer time in peace. Click on over to http://www.CPUSecurity.com for more information.
I decided to take a look at the total amount of outbound spam incidents that we have discovered over the past year.? We have multiple layers of incidents:
We have thresholds for the amount of mail users can send where the content is marked as spam.We have thresholds for the amount of mail some organizations can send where the content is not marked as spam (pure volume threshold).Other organizations have the same processes in place but the threshold is lower.? This is because the organization has a history of sending outbound spam.? Therefore, in order to be more aggressive, we have lowered those limits to prevent zero-day spam from emitting.I took a look at all of our automated alerts and plotted them on a weekly chart, seen below:
The data is not conclusive but you can see that it is trending up (i.e., getting worse) over time.? However, unlike spam which remains pretty constant (except on weekends), compromised accounts or machines oscillate a lot – up one week and down the other.? It is not consistent.
The good news in all of this is that our detection mechanisms have steadily improved.? The bad news is that the better we get at it, the more problems we see there are.
Here’s a weird story.
Yesterday, I was driving back home after watching the latest Harry Potter movie – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.? I have never read any of the books, however, I have enjoyed the movies and the Wikipedia summaries.
I sometimes browse the news and on Friday they had a “Harry Potter Stars: Then and Now” article on some news site.? I took a look at them and compared the stars of the movies and how they had grown up during the past ten years.
I thought to myself “Gee, what was I doing ten years ago when the first movie came out?”? As it turns out, I remember exactly what I was doing.? It was November 2001 and I was living in England at the time.? I remember that there was a big buzz around the movie and that a lot of my friends were going to go see it, but I didn’t.? In fact, I didn’t see the first movie until I rented it on video (they still had them in those days) a year later and saw the second movie a couple of days after that.? I thought to myself “Wow, has it really been ten years since all of that?? Man, that’s almost a third of my life!”? Time sure does fly.
Anyhow, as I walked out of the theater I realized that I had been texting and emailing various people with my smart phone.? Unlike 95% of the population, I didn’t get a smart phone until a month ago (I got a Windows Phone; I know it’s supposedly not as cool as an iPhone or an Android, but I really like it).? I held out for a long time and finally upgraded because I wanted to use all of the advanced doodads like Twitter, Facebook, and using both of my thumbs to type text messages.
I then realized something – I’m using my smart phone to do texting, tweeting and Facebook-ing.? I’m also checking (personal) mail on my cell phone.? I’m not using a PC or regular email client for any of that stuff.
That made me realize something; in the past, I have dismissed Facebook’s “this-is-not-email” feature as not relevant to people in business.? But yet it was clear to me that I got along perfectly well this past weekend communicating with people on my phone and not using email that much.?
Why is that a problem?
The people who don’t see the winds of change are the people who are old and stuck in their ways, or don’t have access to information.? I had access to information, I just interpreted it incorrectly.? Why?? Is it because I am old and stuck in my ways?? Am I not hip enough to see the shift away from mail is coming faster than I think?
My rationale for dismissing short messaging is that it’s fine for personal communication but not for business.? In business, you need a richer experience. But I wonder if it’s even necessary?? There’s something to be said for simplicity.? A lot, actually. If you have a simpler interface, you just don’t do all of the complex mailing that you would otherwise.? And you wouldn’t miss it, either.? Prevailing thinking is that business systems are taken from the office into the home (fax machines, photocopiers, etc).? But maybe not – iPhones are now very popular amongst business people and so are Android phones.? Those started in the consumer market and made their way into the business market.
One thing that I am going to stand by – email may not be the biggest communication platform you use.? It will get smaller as a percentage.? But will it go to zero?? And will the mail client be important anymore?? Or will it be reduced to a much smaller niche market?
Or maybe I’m too old to see the future.
