Email Security
Do you remember when people had to communicate by phone, letters, or faxes? Many of us were alive before email was popular, but it is hard to believe we survived for so long without it! It is the major mode of communication today whether at work or at home. It is also one of the most common ways for hackers to defraud people and send viruses. It is necessary to protect yourself if you use email at all.
Because emails often contain attachments, it makes them particularly susceptible to viruses contained within the attachments. Even someone you know may inadvertently send you a file that contains a virus. Some viruses look in your email address book and send the infected email to everyone on the list to spread themselves even further.
The best protection against viruses is to know beforehand that someone is sending you an attachment and also to purchase virus protection software. A good virus protection software program will scan all email attachments as they are received. It will also scan files you send to others. It will help keep your system clean of viruses.Not all computer risks involve a virus. Some people try to defraud you using a process called phishing. They try to trick you into revealing personal information such as a computer password or credit card information. They do this by sending out official looking emails from banks, online retailers, and even PayPal. While the email looks official, it is not. There is usually a link they ask you to click to verify your personal information. By obtaining this information, they can then commit identity theft.
Sometimes the subject line is a give away for this phishing emails. Know that most reputable places will never ask for your personal information. Check the url link. Even if it looks official, check the properties of that link by right clicking and choosing properties. Even though the email may say it is from PayPal, you will probably find it is from some other site – someone trying to steal your information.
There is software that can detect phishing, but it often identifies legitimate emails as frauds. Just remember to treat your personal information with care and avoid giving it to anyone – especially online.
Just like your regular data files, your email files can be backed up. Most email programs allow you to export the file to your hard drive and you can then back it up as you would any other file. There is specialized software, which will back up your emails directly if you receive many that are of such importance that they need to be backed up. These programs can be set to perform backups at certain intervals so you do not have to worry about it. While it may take time to set up a program such as this or even do manual backups, if you lose the information and don’t have a backup, it can be much more painful!