For years now the electronic mail system of the Internet (email) has been a victim of annoying advertising spam and virus attacks.
The latest threats to email include hacking to take control of the account, spam with links that when clicked infect a computer with ransomware, and tracking/spying on email usage by email providers and their affiliates.
Below are some suggestions for boosting email security. Remember though, networking and the Internet were not designed from the ground up to be a secure communication system, nor was email. Whenever you send something via email it can be compromised somewhere along the communication chain.
- Use separate accounts for business and personal use. In my opinion, it's generally more likely a personal email account will be compromised. You don't want your business contacts exposed by a hack.
- Ditch Yahoo email. Use Gmail instead. True, there are privacy concerns with Gmail. But I believe Google does a much better job at security than Yahoo. Just read the recent news on the hacks of Yahoo's system and their failure to take action and disclose.
- Use 2-step verification. This requires that someone trying to access your email from a device you haven't previously used/approved will need to enter a code sent by text to your phone to gain access.
- Use unique, complex passwords for each account, and make sure passwords are not used for any other online accounts.
- Don't send anything confidential by email. As mentioned earlier, email isn't inherently secure. So don't email account numbers, passwords, social security numbers, etc. If you must share this stuff via email, find a means to encrypt the data, such as zipping an attachment with the 7-zip program and using a password/encryption. This is not perfect security, but raises the bar.
- Set your spam scanner on aggressive and check the spam folder often for valid email. You can white-list the wrongly labeled "spam" email so the filter won't screen it out next time.
- Use Antivirus software to scan all email if you use a program like Outlook, Thunderbird, Windows Mail, etc.
- If your email is hacked, changed your password immediately and monitor the account for oddities. If the hacker sent email from you to your contacts, immediately notify your contacts about the hack - tell them to be careful about suspicious content, including asking them to click links.
Wishing you a safe day in cyberspace!
Thanks for reading.
Sam
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