Safe e-mail usage tips:

Secure your most sensitive data from prying eyes using just a few simple tips.

While we all use e-mails, very few are aware of the term Phishing. Even though we secure our phones, notebooks and other devices with antivirus software, computer viruses pose a lesser threat than phishing scam ones. Phishing is just like normal fishing only here, you are the fish. The fisherman throws a bait(a scam mail) to the pond(your e-mail account). Once you catch the bait, you’re a goner and that’s for sure. Your computer might have data you want to keep secure but your e-mail accounts store a lot of very sensitive information such as passwords and other such sensitive data. Imagine one day you wake up to realize that you are not able to access your account or that you open it to find that no data exists or maybe even your account no longer exists as it has been deleted! More horribly, what if your bank information has been used to transfer huge amounts of funds by someone to their bank accounts??

And all that can sometimes happen just by opening and paying attention to a scam e-mail sent by a Phisher(man) 😉 . But not everyone has the talent to identify a real e-mail to a scam one. If e-mails are very important to you, follow these simple steps in daily usage to keep your best data secure.

Find who sent it..

1.

Whenever you receive a mail, and before you start reading its contents, always read the email id of the sender. Remember, best thing a Phisher(man) can do to grab you attention is to make the mail look as real as possible. Once you are attracted by, enthralled by or maybe even horrified by the content, you would definitely pay attention to it. But one thing that he cannot hide is his e-mail ID. Again read the part after the @ sign in the e-mail ID and not before it which again he can customize. The later part is the domain from where he is sending the mail. There is a way in which he can counter even this shortcoming but either he generally does not bother or its difficult to do (since such mails are sent in bulk)

Its not a storehouse.

2.

Don't use your mail account as a store house for sensitive information like passwords or bank account details. For example, Let's say you changed the password of some online portal and that you recieved in a mail. Make backup of the information and delete the mail. If you let it be there without making any backup of it for any reason, you might lose it in case of a possible phishing attack.

Again, read the address!

3.

Whenever you recieve links in mail, first check the address there before opening it. The link address might be visible or not. In either case, right click on the link, copy link address, paste it on a notepad and check if its genuine. Then open it. One shortcoming here could be that sometimes genuine senders also send links in this format "bit.ly". Once you click on it, it will automatically redirect to correct address. So in this case you will have to choose based upon other factors.

Keep the ID safe.

4.

Passwords are for you to keep incognito but that doesn't mean you can share your ID with just about anyone. There are certain phishing scams in which multiple IDs are tried with certain passwords every few days. So if your ID reaches such servers, you will start recieving e-mails from gmail(if yours is a gmail account) for example that someone tried to access your account and everytime from different parts of the world. If you need to give your email ID to a lot of people, keep another account for such purpose. For important mails, use your main account.

About the author:

After three years of experience working as a developer in various technologies in two companies, I am now a pursuing MBA aspirant. Also a regular blogger, I post on various blogs things I feel might be useful. According to me, knowledge is a very important tool especially in today’s world and everyone should remain well aware to whatever is happening around them which might affect them in many ways day-to-day. Only a person who knows can contribute towards anything. And so while everyone has views, aware person has a viewpoint.