How To Tighten Up Your Email Security

By:Internet Security Squad

These days email is a necessary part of communication. However, this also means that email is one of the most popular ways for a virus to infect your computer. You need to protect yourself from the threat of fraud and infection.

Viruses

Email attachments often contain viruses so you need to be careful whenever you open any type of attachment even if you know the sender. There are some viruses that can infiltrate your address book and then send email that is infected to everyone on your list. This means that you can get a virus from a colleague or a friend. The best thing to do is to communicate with the sender so that you know you are expecting an attachment.

Software for virus protection is your best bet against viruses. This software will scan all your email attachments when they are received on your computer. All computers that have Internet access will need to have antivirus software so that all systems are protected as one big whole. There are some viruses that will start with one computer system and then spread to the rest of the network, eventually encompassing all the hardware that is needed to access the Internet.

Phishing

Email can lead to fraud, which is yet another type of security risk. Phishing, is one type of fraud that will try to trick you into giving out personal passwords or banking information. This type of email will use the logo from a well known banking institution or online business after which they will ask you to update your banking information or your password.

Phishing provides a link that looks as though it is legitimate but that in fact will lead you to a false website. If you provide them with personal information you become a victim of theft or fraud on your credit card. This is also known as "identity theft".

Email content and subject lines can be your clue to phishing. Instead of using your name the subject line might say something like "To our valued customer". It isn't hard to find some variant for personal names so be on the alert.

Less of clue to phishing is when a link is included that has nothing to do with the text in the email. You can verify this by highlighting the link and paying attention to the status bar. For example, if the email text is something about Microsoft, and the URL is www.nowhereland.com, you have a good clue that the message you've received isn't really from Microsoft.

There is software that can detect whether phishing is occurring. Even though this software isn't fully mature yet it can at least identify if an email is fraud. Whenever you are asked for your credit card number or a password you should be suspicious. Always keep in mind that no legitimate banking institution will ask you to give personal information or to verify any passwords in the content of an email.

E-mail Backups

Your email, just like other data on your computer, should always be backed up. Most email programs will be easy to back up. All you need to do is export your email messages to a selected folder and then do a backup on this folder. You can use a backup program and put your email onto a writeable CD, DVD, removable disk, or any other type of media.

You also have the option of buying backup software that is specialized for backing up email. This software is moderately priced and eliminates the need to export your email to a folder.

You can automate most backup software so that backups happen at a time that is convenient without you having to lend a hand. You'll have to find time in your busy schedule to configure this type of software. However, you'll be no more busy doing the configuring as you would be if you need to replace an email that you needed.

Digg del.icio.us Blink Stumble Spurl Reddit Netscape Furl

Article keywords: spam, antispam, spam blocker, phishing, email security, internet security, pc security

Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Paul Wilcox writes about internet security and other related topics. Sign up for my free newsletter and receive my special report "How To Lock Your Computer Down - Internet Security in 2006" at www.internetsecuritysquad.com/freereport

Top Spam Articles
1). Free Spam Blockers By : Matt Garrett Remember when spam was just another horrible thing you would never eat? And then you grew up a little and spam became the lyrics to a great Monty Python song. And now spam is something to avoid at all costs. Or, in the case of free spam blockers, at no cost at all. Everything is better when it’s free, right? Such is the case with blocking out annoying spam from your email account, too.
2). Save Time, Money and Hassle - Stop Spam By : Justin Brown Spam can be an absolute nightmare, and one that seems to spiral out of control in some of my email accounts. If i've been away for a few days and haven't had a chance to check my emails, I dread having to open up my email client when I get back online in anticipation of hundreds or thousands of spam emails. Although I simply delete these emails, for some, they seem legitimate messages that can often cause the recipient to become the subject of a fraudulent activity.
3). Antispam Organization Out There That's Fighting For You By : Robert Michael There's an antispam organization out there that's fighting for you and could use your help. CAUCE, the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, is an all-volunteer global entity that began as SPAM-LAW, a group brought together for discussion only. They put all their efforts into getting legislation passed that would help stop and penalize spam.
4). How to Benefit from Comment Spam By : Chris Ellington Comment spam is annoying. Here's a quick piece on how to turn the tables on the comment spammers and use their comments to your advantage instead of theirs.
5). Real Businesses Send Spam, Too! By : Jerry Weinstock Unsolicited Commercial Email or Spam has grown at epidemic proportions. It is rapidly becoming the number one problem that Information Technology departments deal with on a day-to-day basis, surpassing computer viruses. The volume and percentage of unwanted email received in business and personal email inboxes is starting to overwhelm and drown out legitimate email.
6). Spam Filter - Bayesian Filter to Fight back Spammers By : Micky Sing The most prolific and path breaking innovation of last century had been the developments in the communication field. It literally changed the business working, product marketing, support services and most importantly, the advertisement campaigns. But just like all goods things comes with a price, so was the communication. It brought in the problems of Spam Emails.
7). How Do Anti Spam Solutions Work? By : Paton Jackson We have all suffered from these annoying dangerous spam emails. Most of us still do. There are excellent anti spam solutions in the market, there is no reason to tolerate this no more. To understand the solution we must first understand the problem. So, what is this spam email? Spam is unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant or inappropriate email. Spam email is mostly used for commercial purposes.
8). How to Reduce Spam in Your Inbox and Enhance Your Email Security By : Richard Rogers Spam is the internet’s equivalent of junk mail. Spam is defined as an e-mail message sent to people without their consent or permission. Addresses of recipients are often harvested from Usenet postings or web pages, obtained from databases, or simply guessed by using common names and domains. Spam is sent to promote practically any product or service ranging from “Adult” products to logo design for websites.
9). Seven tips for securing your organization´s network from spam and email viruses By : Todd Green Seven tips for securing your organization´s network from spam and email viruses Providing security against email related threats has become a burden for most IT professionals in 2006. According to a recent study by Postini, spam and email viruses now make up to 80% of all emails sent out as compared to 50% in 2000. As a result, IT professionals now face a tougher challenge in providing network security for this amount of spam.
10). Email Anti Spam And Virus Protection For Businesses - There Is Hope By : John Tourloukis With anti spam vendors offering low cost licensing, businesses can now afford advanced email spam and virus protection with a simple to use interface at a much lower cost. The great thing about technology is that as it evolves it gets faster, additional features and economical. Over the past few years the same evolution has taken place with anti spam technology and services.

New Spam Articles
1). Identifying Spam When it Arrives By : Keith Londrie Most of us have opened our email program and found, alongside correspondence from people that we know, offers for products from commercial web sites. Some of these emails we expect. We have asked to be notified of sales and other opportunities or joined a mailing list offered by the company.
2). Save Time, Money and Hassle - Stop Spam By : Justin Brown Spam can be an absolute nightmare, and one that seems to spiral out of control in some of my email accounts. If i've been away for a few days and haven't had a chance to check my emails, I dread having to open up my email client when I get back online in anticipation of hundreds or thousands of spam emails. Although I simply delete these emails, for some, they seem legitimate messages that can often cause the recipient to become the subject of a fraudulent activity.
3). A Quick Look At Email Spam Filters By : Oliver Turner You must be eagerly finding for a way out to stop receiving Spam mails in your inbox. Take a quick look at email spam filters to get some idea on how to check spam. There are a number of email spam filters that you can use in your computer. For official purposes, you have anti server software spam where the spam filter is located in the server level to trap all email spam.
4). An Introduction To Spam Filters By : Peter Emerson Using spam filters is another very effective way of combating spam or junk mail. These programs use some keywords like ‘guaranteed’, ‘free’, etc and block any email with those words in them. But this has the disadvantage of sometimes blocking even important mails from your contacts and preventing those senders from sending mails to your address again.
5). What Is Spam? By : Daniel J.Fox You have probably seen an increase in the amount of junk mail which shows up in your email box, or on your favorite newsgroup. The activities of a small number of people are becoming a bigger problem for the Internet. Chain letters that ask for money, whether for reports or just straight up, are illegal in the US whether they are in postal mail or e-mail.
6). Fighting Spam! By : Darry J.Oswald It's been nearly a decade since spammers and their enemies begun evolving competitively. As with the classic cheetah/gazelle model originally formulated by Darwin, each time one group becomes a little faster or more agile, its adversaries develop traits for outwitting and outrunning it. In addition to wasting people's time with unwanted e-mail, spam also eats up a lot of network bandwidth.
7). Two Main Groups Of Spam! By : Camry James There are two main types of spam, and they have different effects on Internet users. Cancellable Usenet spam is a single message sent to 20 or more Usenet newsgroups. (Through long experience, Usenet users have found that any message posted to so many newsgroups is often not relevant to most or all of them.) Usenet spam is aimed at lurkers, people who read newsgroups but rarely or never post and give their address away.
8). Antispam. Aren't We All! Don't You Just Hate It? By : Robert Michael Antispam. Aren't we all! Don't you just hate it? You've got enough to do without having to sift through a bunch of worthless, or worse yet, offensive junk e-mails in your Inbox. So what can be done about it? What antispam procedures and software really work? Spam filtering software is the first stop in your antispam campaign, but in some ways it's the easiest to subvert.
9). Everybody Hates Spam By : Jay Ashley There is nothing like checking your email only to find out that your inbox is swamped with unsolicited message from people you do not know. No you’re not interested to buy dog food, beauty products, slimming pills, plants, or software! But still, you get these irritating emails. Spam, this tiny four letter word has annoyed millions of people around the world.
10). The Spamming Trap For Online Business Beginners By : Rami Doleh People who begin their online business ventures would naturally be unaware of many of the internet business rules, protocols and etiquettes. Yet, as in any law, the internet law does not forgive for ignorance. One of the most important issues that are governed by many controls over the internet is Spamming. A beginner in online business can very easily fall unintentionally into the spamming trap while conducting internet marketing activity to promote his/her business.