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The 25 Most Common Mistakes in Email Security
Topic Started: Aug 13 2008, 07:40 PM (56 Views)
Deleted User
Deleted User

The 25 Most Common Mistakes in Email Security


Countless computer crashes and thousands of spam emails later, I had learned the lesson that just opening spam email can bring harm to my computer. Unfortunately there are a whole host of traps and errors that catch new email users just because "they didn't know any better".

1.Using just one email account.
Individuals new to email often think about their email account like they do their home address, you only have one home address, so you should only have one email. Instead, you should think about your email address like you do your keys; while it may be OK to use the same key for your front and your back door, having a single key open everything is both impractical and unsafe.

2.Holding onto spammed-out accounts too long.
It is simply a fact of life that email accounts will accumulate spam over time. This is especially true of the account you use to sign up for newsletters and that you post online (which as stated above should not be your main email account). When this happens, it is best to simply dump the email account and start afresh.

3. Not closing the browser after logging out.
When you are checking your email at a library or cybercafé you not only need to log out of your email when you are done, but you also need to make sure to close the browser window completely. S

4. Forgetting to delete browser cache, history and passwords.
After using a public terminal, it is important that you remember to delete the browser cache, history, and passwords. Most browsers automatically keep track of all the web pages that you have visited, and some keep track of any passwords and personal information that you enter in order to help you fill out similar forms in the future.

5. Using unsecure email accounts to send and receive sensitive corporate information.
Large corporations invest huge amounts of money to ensure that their computer networks and email remain secure. Despite their efforts, careless employees using personal email accounts to conduct company business and pass along sensitive data can undermine the security measures in place.

6. Forgetting the telephone option
One of the most important lessons about email security is that no matter how many steps you take to secure your email, it will never be foolproof. This is never truer than when using a public computer. So unless you need a written record of something or are communicating across the globe, consider whether a simple phone call rather than an email is a better option.

7. Not using the Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) option.
When you put a person's email addresses in the BCC: rather than the CC: window, none of the recipients can see the addresses of the other email recipients.
New email users often rely too much on the TO: because it is the default way of sending emails. That is fine as long as you are writing to just one person or a few family members. But if you are sending mail out to a diverse group of people, confusing BCC: and CC: raises some serious privacy and security concerns. It takes just one spammer to get a hold of the email and immediately everyone on your email list gets spammed.
8. Being trigger happy with the "Reply All" button.
Sometimes the mistake isn't in deciding between CC: and BCC: but between hitting Reply All instead of Reply. When you hit Reply All, your email message is sent to everyone included on the original email, and if you didn't intend to include them, the information can be disastrous from both a security and personal humiliation perspective:

9. Spamming as a result of forwarding email.
Forwarding emails can be a great way to quickly bring someone up to speed on a subject without having to write up a summary email, but if you aren't careful, forwarding emails can create a significant security threat for yourself and the earlier recipients of the email. As an email is forwarded, the recipients of the mail (until that point in time) are automatically listed in the body of the email. As the chain keeps moving forward, more and more recipient ids are placed on the list.

10. Failing to back up emails.
Emails are not just for idle chatting, but can also be used to make legally binding contracts, major financial decisions, and conduct professional meetings. Just as you would keep a hard copy of other important business and personal documents, it is important that you regularly back up your email to preserve a record if your email client crashes and loses data (It happened to Gmail as recently as December 2006).

11. Mobile access: Presuming a backup exists.
Mobile email access, such as through BlackBerry, has revolutionized the way we think about email; no longer is it tied to a PC, but rather it can be checked on-the-go anywhere. Most new BlackBerry users simply assume that a copy of the emails they check and delete off the BlackBerry will still be available on their home or office computer.

12. Thinking that an erased email is gone forever.
We've all sent an embarrassing or unfortunate email and sighed relief when it was finally deleted, thinking the whole episode was behind us. Think again. Just because you delete an email message from your inbox and the sender deletes it from their 'Sent' inbox, does not mean that the email is lost forever. In fact, messages that are deleted often still exist in backup folders on remote servers for years, and can be retrieved by skilled professionals.

13. Believing you won the lottery … and other scam titles.
Spammers use a wide variety of clever titles to get you to open emails which they fill with all sorts of bad things. New email users often make the mistake of opening these emails. So in an effort to bring you up to speed, let me tell you quickly:
•You have not won the Irish Lotto, the Yahoo Lottery, or any other big cash prize

14. Not recognizing phishing attacks in email content.
While never opening a phishing email is the best way to secure your computer, even the most experienced email user will occasionally accidentally open up a phishing email. At this point, the key to limiting your damage is recognizing the phishing email for what it is.

15. Sending personal and financial information via email.
. Banks and online stores provide, almost without exception, a secured section on their website where you can input your personal and financial information. They do this precisely because email, no matter how well protected, is more easily hacked than well secured sites.

16. Unsubscribing to newsletters you never subscribed to.
A common technique used by spammers is to send out thousands of fake newsletters from organizations with an "unsubscribe" link on the bottom of the newsletter. Email users who then enter their email into the supposed "unsubscribe" list are then sent loads of spam.

17. Trusting your friends email.
Most new internet users are very careful when it comes to emails from senders they don't recognize. But when a friend sends an email, all caution goes out the window as they just assume it is safe because they know that the sender wouldn't intend to hurt them. The truth is, an email from a friend's ID is just as likely to contain a virus or malware as a stranger's.

18. Deleting spam instead of blacklisting it.
An email blacklist is a user created list of email accounts that are labeled as spammers. When you 'blacklist' an email sender, you tell your email client to stop trusting emails from this particular sender and to start assuming that they are spam.

19. Disabling the email spam filter.
New email users typically do not start out with a lot of spam in their email account and thus do not value the help that an email spam filter can provide at the beginning of their email usage.

20. Failing to scan all email attachments.

Nine out of every ten viruses that infect a computer reach it through an email attachment. Yet despite this ratio, many people still do not scan all incoming email attachments.

21. Sharing your account information with others.
We've all done it – we need an urgent mail checked, and we call up our spouse or friend and request them to check our email on our behalf. Of course, we trust these people, but once the password is known to anybody other than you, your account is no longer as secure as it was.

22. Using simple and easy-to-guess passwords.
Hackers use computer programs that scroll through common names to compile possible user names, and then send spam emails to those usernames. When you open that spam email, a little hidden piece of code in the email sends a message back to the hacker letting him know that the account is valid, at which point they turn to the task of trying to guess your password.

23. Failing to encrypt your important emails.
No matter how many steps you take to minimize the chance that your email is being monitored by hackers, you should always assume that someone else is watching whatever comes in and out of your computer. Given this assumption, it is important to encrypt your emails to make sure that if someone is monitoring your account, at least they can't understand what you're saying.

24. Not encrypting your wireless connection.
While encrypting your important emails makes it hard for hackers who have access to your email to understand what they say, it is even better to keep hackers from getting access to your emails in the first place.

25. Failing to use digital signatures.
The law now recognizes email as an important form of communication for major undertakings such as signing a contract or entering into a financial agreement. While the ability to enter into these contracts online has made all of our lives easier, it has also created the added concern of someone forging your emails and entering into agreements on your behalf without your consent

Full details can be read here: http://www.itsecurity.com/features/25-common-email-security-mistakes-022807/
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