Encrypted Email: Protect your inbox from threats
Encrypted Email
With over 6 billion emails being sent every day, we need to be more
vigilant than ever when sending and receiving email. There are bad guys
who just love it when unsecured emails make it easy for them to
distribute spam and viruses.
That's why we've created this special page designed to offer
suggestions and tips on how to protect your inbox and the people in
your address book from the many threats that await the unsuspecting.
The use of email as a means of connecting with others has become a commonplace part of our everyday lives. When it was all new and different, email was something we treated with caution and respect. Like any new tool, it was used very carefully as we were unsure of the benefits it offered but fully aware of the dangers.
Today, that has all changed. The tool we know as email is something that most of us can't imagine living without and we scarecely give a thought as to the dangers that might be lurking. Sure, we all get the odd spam message that sneaks through the filters, but for the most part, email is a pretty benign part of our daily lives.
The reality is that email is never really secure. Any
email you send or receive could easily be intercepted at any time. In
addition, clever phishing emails can be so genuine looking that even
the most hardened inernet communicator will open them, unexpectedly
exposing themselves to the criminals who send them.
For example, suppose you found yourself the recipient of an innocent looking newsletter that you actually couldn't remember subscribing to. No problem, there is a convenient "unsubscribe" link at the bottom which when clicked, promises to remove you from the list just as soon as you confim you email address. Presto! Get ready because the Spam train is headed for your inbox! Dangerous? Maybe not. But definitely annoying and there always is the possibility of a Trojan finding its way into your computer.
Receiving email from friends may also present a danger because you trust them to never send you anything bad, but in reality they may be sending you viruses or malware. This isn't actually your friend putting you in danger, but could actually be a hacker using your friend's computer as a zombie.
How do you protect yourself? Well, there are the usual techniques like anti-virus software, wireless encryption and good old common sense. But as phishers and hackers become more sophisticated, these methods will be less effective.
A dedicated email encryption solution might be the best answer. There are many options available and education is the best way to make the right choice.
Think about it. Governments around the world are
routinely scanning the content of emails looking for indicators of
terrorism or illegal activity. Sending an email is like sending a
postcard; while in transit, it is very easily read by anyone with only
a moderate amount of sophistication.
It is easy to send an email and make it seem as though it was sent by someone else. I receive spam emails that, honestly, completely appear to have been sent by me! Why a spammer would think that I could be lured into buying Viagra online in an email I sent to myself is beyond me, but that's not the point. The point is that we should all be aware of the extent to which emails can be manipulated.
In fact, after you have sent an email to someone, it is possible to intercept it, change the content and send it on its way. This requires a bit more sophistication, but is very possible. Think about you sending an email to your boss or a co-worker and how such an act could irrevocably change your life. If you don't think you need to practice email security or use email encryption, scenarios like this might make you change your mind. Using digital signatures in your email is a terrific way to combat this.
The purpose of this article isn't to scare you or come across as all paranoid, but rather to introduce a sense of awareness around the issue of email security. There is no shortage of bad guys out there will never stop trying clever and innovative methods to gain by exploiting weaknesses in the internet. You don't need to make their job any easier by turning a blind eye to besic email security.
And, if the content of your email is really important, such as sensitive business information, then you really should stop taking risks and explore more sophisticated measures to protect your emails.
Communicating by email is not by any means secure. Here
are some common threats that we are exposed to when not using encrypted
email or email security.
A common email scurity problem is eavesdropping. Anyone who has
acces to the networks or computers through which your email is being
routed potentially has the ability to read it. Even if the computers
owned by the bad guys exist on networks near the email route, they can
still manage to acces the content of your emails.
Another security risk is
identity theft. There are many different techniques that the bad guys
can use to figure out what username and password you use to access your
email servers. Once they have done this, they can access your email
account as though they were actually you and read or send false email
messages that appear as though they were sent by you. Bad guys wiull
distribute viruses this way since the email containing the virus
appears to have been sent by a trusted source.
If your email is routed through SMTP servers, anyone with access to these servers will also be able to read any of the emails they contain. This is not nearly as secure as you might think and the consequences are obvious. Additionally, plain text copies of all messages process through the SMTP server are often kept for years, providing a database of email names, addresses and content to anybody who can access the server. Obviously, the risk of that happening increases as time goes on.
There are lots of solutions to these problems but they are generally quite technical in nature and often not trivial to implement. A balance need to be struck between the sensitivity of the emails you send and receive against the possibility of the bad guys wreaking havoc on your life. In general, though, it pays to be aware of the risks and to take steps towards making your email communications as safe and as secure as possible.
Without investing in a third party solution to increase email security, there are things the average user can do to prevent security problems. There are over 6 billion emails sent every DAY so it's not hard to keep your email usage a little more secure than most users.
When forwarding an email, remove the information of the person who sent it you in the first place. It's common to be forwarded an email and see dozens of email addresses of others who also received the email. These are eaily removed before sending the forwarded note and lessen the chance that spammers or viruses can distribute their unwanted content to large recipient lists that they may find this way.
Also, whenever you are sending to a list, consider using BCC or
"blind carbon copy" to insert their email addresses. There is rarely a
good reason to include everyone's name and email on the list for all to
see. Remember, if you can see it, it's easy for anybody to see it and
this data should be hidden from view as much as possible.
An obvious suggestion is to realloy think about what you are sending
before clicking that send button. In my corporate work environment, I
am astonished at how many notes are sent out only to be recalled a few
minutes later. It was either sent ot the wrong people or contained
sensitive content that the sender didn't want to divulge, but in either
case, recalling it is totally ineffective. It simply says, "oops! I
didn't mean to send that to you! Please delete it and don't read it".
Well, not everyone is going to be able to resist this email and,
thinking that it must contain some juicy information, will just read it
anyways. Sad but true, this is how most humans work!
Think about the subject line in your email. Many spammers will try
to entice you to open an email by putting compelling text in the
subject line. You can help differentiate your emails from spam by
putting relevant, targeted words in the subject line. This will
ultimately help the recipient gain confidence that it really is from
you.
Blacklist spammers. You can set your spam filters to automatically get
rid of spam, but the odd one will slip through. Whe this happens, just
right click on the sender's name and add to spam list or blacklist.
This will ensure that that person can never send to you again.
Be patient when receiving attachments. Read the entire email and verify
that the attachment really is something that the sender would have
included. If in doubt, right click on the attachment icon and see if
there is an option to directly scan it for viruses. The vast majority
of viruses that infiltrate personal computers are put there by
attachments.
These common sense ideas should be a starting point for you to increase
your email security which is valuable not only for your personal
benefit but the internet as a whole.