PC Security - Email Security
Everybody uses email these days it seems. It is a common
question - 'What is your email address?' It is as common as asking for one's
phone number, address, or even their name! Unfortunately, email offers malicious
people a way to perform a computer break-in. Much like a thief knowing your
home address. At one time, our greatest concern was spam, now our greatest
concern is computer security, although spam is still a big problem!
Viruses can arrive by email easily, usually in the form of attachments. Never
open an attachment from someone that you do not know. Even then, make sure
that the attachment is scanned before you open it!These viruses will often
access your address book, and then send itself to everyone in that address
book, infecting more computers. These viruses can send themselves to everyone
you know before you even know you are infected!
Obviously, the best way to prevent these viruses is not to open any attachments.
But in our world of technology, this isn't always possible. The second line
of defense is a good virus scanner that scans incoming email as well. Most
email clients, such as Microsoft Outlook, do not have anti-virus software
included!
Aside from viruses that arrive by email, phishing, which is pronounced as
fishing, is also a problem. These emails don't harm your computer at all
- until you click on the link that is provided in the email. A common phishing
scheme is to try to get the email recipient to click on the link, and enter
login information for one of several popular financial websites, such as
a bank or PayPal.
These websites will commonly look exactly like what you would expect to see
at the legitimate website, with one difference - the URL or website address
is not right. The link in the email even looks legitimate. Phishing of this
type leads to credit card fraud or identity theft.
You can recognize phishing emails in a variety of ways. First, look at the
subject line of the email, and the email message. They will not contain your
first name, whereas legitimate emails from financial institutions and such
will use your real name. Another way to find out if the email is legitimate
is to simply hover your mouse over the link in the email, and see if the
information that pops up matches the text of the link.
Software is currently being developed to detect phishing, but it hasn't quite
made it through production just yet. This software currently mistakes real
email for phishing email or fraud emails.
It is important to back your email up. This can usually be done by importing
the email messages to a folder, and then use your regular backup program
to record the folder to a removable disk or CD. There are also specialized
backup programs, such as those for Microsoft Outlook, that will make backup
of email even easier.
 PC Security: Index
PC Security:
Internet Browsers
PC Security:
Spam
PC Security:
Stopping Spam Part 1
PC Security:
Stopping Spam Part 2
PC Security: Spam
Scams
PC Security:
Email Security and Spam
PC Security:
Email Security
PC Security:
Computer Viruses
PC Security:
Protecting Computers From Viruses
PC Security:
Worm Viruses
PC Security:
Trojan Horse Viruses
PC Security:
Rootkits
PC Security:
Removing a Virus
PC Security:
Virus Hoaxes
PC Security:
Server Viruses
PC Security:
Home Network
PC Security:
Cell Phone Viruses
PC Security:
Spyware
PC Security:
Firewalls Part 1
PC Security:
Firewalls Part 2
PC
Security: Parental Control Software
PC Security:
Malware - Spyware and Adware
PC Security:
Data Backups
PC Security:
Pop Up Windows
PC
Security: Safe Public Computer Use
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