We’re all open to attack. Most of us use email as our primary communications vehicle. And we trust the emails we get from known sources. Should we? If we’re in a large corporation with administrators who sift and survey all day long, maybe we’re OK. If we have the latest computer and anti-spyware, anti-spam and anti-anything else, we may be OK. But only maybe. Those of us out there on our own need to be REALLY careful. This isn’t optional – it’s essential.
I spent a large portion of the last few days building a fortress around my email, because despite all the precautions I have been taking, I was getting many tacky email spam-ads, and repeated pop-ups of an x-rated “dating” ad that came up full volume when I was on the phone or in a meeting with clients. My screen and spirit are still intact, but barely.
Shouldn’t we all take reasonable precautions ourselves to be sure we’re not attacked and our information isn’t “harvested” or worse? Be honest – do you know that your anti-spam and anti-spyware is even installed, never mind working every day (or hour)? You owe it to yourself and everyone you deal with. When I ran the anti-spyware software, I got over 50 suspicious tags. I don’t care who they were—they’re sooooo gone.
With perfect timing, my friend Joe, who doesn’t want his email or identity broadcast, sent me an email about a very simple, but important topic: email forwarding:
“ Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.
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When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the othe addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top).
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Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the TO: or CC: columns for adding e-mail address. Always use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) column for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way that people you send to only see their own e-mail address. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients in the "TO:" field of the people who receive it.
And, from Mr. Modem, in my local newspaper: Don’t ever open emails that don’t have a subject line, or worse, a sender identified,. Doing so opens you to a barrage of spam emails. Many of these are just testing to see if “you are there” and will put you on the active list if you respond.
And from me – Your spamware and spyware might be installed, but do you really know if they’re working? Is yours on auto every 24 hours or only when you initiate it? Test them regularly – it’s the little things that count, and make all your big things possible.
PS. Don’t be afraid to correspond with me. I have inoculated. Fixed. Beaten the spies to pieces. But it is an ongoing battle. Don’t forget.
I enjoyed this post and I agree with you that all of us should be careful about email security. which softwares do you suggest and from where the users can download?
Posted by: Razib Ahmed | March 21, 2006 1:48 AM | Permalink to Comment