Five Ways to Secure your E-Mail

Five Ways to Secure your E-Mail

By   09:01   1 comment:

Concerns have been raised after hackers exposed months of e-mails of Sony employees The Sony hack, the latest in a wave of company security breaches, exposed months of employee e-mails. Other hacks have given attackers access to sensitive information about a company and its customers, such as credit-card numbers and e-mail addresses. One way hackers can sneak into a company is by sending fake e-mails with malicious links to employee inboxes.

Here are five simple steps to make your e-mail more secure and limit the harm a hacker can cause:

1. ARCHIVE EARLY & OFTEN

Most corporate e-mail systems allow people to set up regularly scheduled archiving so that e-mails are moved off of the server after a certain number of days.

You can still check archived e-mails on your work computer, but they are no longer easily accessible on websites outside the office or on your phone. That limits hackers’ ability to access those e-mails too. You can make exceptions for e-mails that you want to keep in your active inbox, and they won’t be archived.

2. GET ORGANISED

As e-mails come into your inbox, deal with them. Sort them into folders. This segments your data, requiring an attacker to know which folder to go to, or to take multiple steps to search for wanted information.

Paired with archiving, it also ensures that what the hacker does compromise is limited and known for any future damage assessment. Sensitive information can also be removed from your inbox. For example, delete an e-mail and save what you need to your hard drive or an external drive.

3. KEEP WORK AND PERSONAL MAILS SEPARATE

Don’t use your work e-mail for personal e-mail or activities online. That limits details a hacker can glean about you to conduct more sophisticated attacks targeting you as the entryway into your company’s system.

For example, hackers can learn about your shopping habits or personal hobbies and use those to send a phishing e-mail that appears to come from websites you bought goods from or read frequently.

Phishing messages route you to a fake address and allow hackers to gain access to your system.

4. DON’T CLICK ON UNEXPECTED LINKS

If you receive an e-mail with a link or attachment you weren’t expecting, send the person a separate e-mail asking whether the first e-mail was legitimate.

For links from companies such as banking institutions, hover your cursor over the hyperlink or right—click to show the link’s final destination. Before you click, make sure the address that pops up when you hover over the link matches where the hyperlink says you’ll be sent.

If unsure, use a new window and physically type in the website’s address to conduct your business.

5. IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING

If your e-mail is acting up or a link or attachment strikes you as strange, forward it to your IT department as quickly as possible. Your attention and fast response may prevent someone else at your company from making a mistake. Source: The Hindu

The group responsible for the Sony Pictures hack has apparently sent a new message that mocks the FBI for its investigation into the devastating cyberattack.

An email claiming to be from Guardians of Peace, the group that took credit for last month's attack on Sony's systems, was sent to journalists early Saturday. The email, titled "The data you are interested in," included a link to a Pastebin page with a so-called "Christmas gift" message taunting the law enforcement agency that on Friday officially named North Korea as the source of the hack.

"The result of investigation by FBI is so excellent that you might have seen what we were doing with your own eyes," reads the message, which then links to a YouTube video. "We congratulate you success. FBI is the BEST in the world."

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Hide Your Real Identity Online With Disposable Email Address In Yahoo Mail

Hide Your Real Identity Online With Disposable Email Address In Yahoo Mail

By   10:35   No comments:

If your Inbox is full of spam message or you don’t want to become a victim of Online Identity theft then you should consider using Disposable Email Address which will hide your real identity online. There are lots of online services which provides Disposable Email Address but those services are not reliable. But you can use your Yahoo Mail Account to create up to 500 address which is more then enough for you.

Here is what we need to do to create a Disposable Email Address In Yahoo Mail:

• Log-in to your yahoo mail account.
• Click on the “Options” button which will show you a drop-down menu, where you have to select “Mail Options”. This will bring up your Mail Options and will be showed as a Tab on your main interface. See the Screenshot below.

• In this window select “Disposable Addresses”
• You will have to select your Base Name. This base name is going to be in every Disposable address so don’t forget to choose an anonymous name.
• In the Next step You will be asked to write a keyword for creating a temporary email address. Try to use any simple words which will help you to remember it easily. However there is no restriction and you can use any word you want.
• In this step you can also specify where you want your mails to be sent. You can choose your main Inbox or any custom folder that you have created or even you can directly send it to your spam folder.

To reduce the spams you can select the “Use SpamGuard” option and click save to create your temporary email address.

That’s all.. You can delete these Disposable addresses whenever you want and can create up to 500 temporary email addresses different keywords.

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Most Essential Email Etiquettes

Most Essential Email Etiquettes

By   11:46   No comments:

Email has become the most widely used medium of communication within the business world and is becoming increasingly critical to the success and productivity at work. Hence, it is essential to ensure that every email is purposeful and meaningful to both the sender and the receiver.

We are pleased to share with you some simple and useful tips that you need to keep in mind regarding professional e-mail conduct. We have categorised the tips into two broad sections for your ready reference.

Composing Email

1. Use the subject field to indicate content and purpose, this helps to clarify what your message is about and may help the recipient prioritize reading your email.

2. Just like a written letter, be sure to start your email with a greeting. (e.g. Dear, Hello, Hi, Sir, Madam).

3. Your e-mail message reflects you and your company, so traditional spelling, grammar, and punctuation rules apply.

4. Write clear, short paragraphs and be direct and to the point, professional alike see their email accounts as business. Clearly identify the recipients, need. to be mark in ‘To’ and ‘CC’. Include the address in ‘TO’ for those you would like a response from. Include the address in ‘CC’ for those whom you need to inform.

5. Don't use BCC to keep others from seeing who you copied; it shows confidence when you directly CC anyone receiving a copy.

6. Do use BCC, however, when sending to a large distribution list, so recipients will not have to see a huge list of names.

7. Try to use one recipient in ‘TO’, multiple recipient may create confusion among all.

8. Use Bold/Underline sparingly and only when on the matter that needs to be highlighted, avoid using Capital Letters. Use brackets to explain the topic with Italic font format, e.g. Tomorrow (1 January 2012).

9. Include Name, Department, Company, Address and official contact number in your email signature.

Responding/Replying of Email

1. Use ‘Reply to All’ carefully, only if it is very important to use.

2. Remove the recipient not require in your reply.

3. Try to respond within a reasonable period, though "reasonable" will depend on the recipient's expectations and the subject being discussed.

4. Make sure your reply contains all responses requested in an email, to avoid multiple emails.

Some final tips

Remember that e-mail is not private.  E-mail is considered company property and can be retrieved, examined, and used in a court of law. You might also inadvertently send something to the wrong party, so always keep the content professional to avoid embarrassment.

Finally do not forget the value of face-to-face or even voice-to-voice communication. E-mail communication is not appropriate when sending confusing or emotional messages. Please feel free to post your comments on this page if you require any clarification.

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Outlook Express Can Compact Messages | How To Disable This Message

Outlook Express Can Compact Messages | How To Disable This Message

By   00:00   No comments:

“To free up disk space, Outlook Express can compact messages. This may take up to a few minutes”. And even after compacting, you may receive this message every few minutes.

This message may be irrelevant, if you do not use Outlook Express, and therefore have no messages to compact. and if you do not need to free up disk space as you may be using only few % of your disk space. If this is the case, what is the way to get rid off this very irritating message.

The problem is, Microsoft removed background compaction from Outlook Express in Windows XP Service Pack 2.   It caused too many problems. But, background compaction is a different issue than the one we're discussing here, which is "To free up disk space, Outlook Express can compact messages."

To turn that message off through Outlook Express Settings,

• You will have to open Outlook Express,
• Click on Tools, Options
• Then on the Maintenance tab at the top.
• Look for the “Compact messages in the background” checkbox in the “Cleaning Up Messages” section and remove the checkmark.

If you cant succeed in the above method, try Try resetting the compact count in the registry:

Warning: Incorrectly editing the registry might damage your system and prevent Windows from starting. Before doing it, back up your important data, make a restore point, and make sure you know how to repair a damaged system. Before making any changes to the orginal default settings, it is advices to create a System Restore settings. Follow this link for details on Using Windows System Restore.

• Start the registry editor.
• Open this key:
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{identity}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0
  where identity is a string of letters, numbers, and dashes.
• Set the value of Compact Check Count to 0.
• Close the registry editor.

This error may occur as Outlook Express is indexed by Windows Search even when Outlook Express is not in use on Windows XP. If that is the case, one of our friend have already discussed this in his blog, Just follow the link for a fix.

For more information, see Why You Should Let Outlook Express Compact Messages When It Asks You .

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Tips To Keep Your Computer And Data Secured And Safe

Tips To Keep Your Computer And Data Secured And Safe

By   19:41   No comments:

The most valuable asset of any people or an organization is data. Loss of data results in a significant loss of revenue. While the importance of data is based on its value to an individual or an organization, effort spent to create it, the costs involved and often the significance of the data/information is not realized until it is temporarily or permanently unavailable.

Organizations have realized that the investment required to provide information protection is far less than the cost derived from the lack of information availability, accessibility or recoverability. But investment alone is not enough for protecting the data. As the computer user our part is more important for the data to be same and secure along with the computer.

If you have anti-virus software installed in Windows 7 and UAC enabled, your operating system should be perfectly secure. However, the weakest link in all computer security will always be the user. Here are my top tips for avoiding the user errors that can undermine your computer’s security.

Keep Your Anti-Virus Software Up to Date
First things first: Make sure you are protected from external attacks by installing anti-virus software.

Make Sure You Have a Good, Up-to-Date Firewall

Just as important as anti-virus software is a firewall. This is your first line of defense against attack from outside. Again, you need to make sure it’s kept up to date as well. If you’re running Windows XP, don’t rely solely on the built-in firewall; it’s not enough.

Get Anti-Spyware Software

Anti-spyware software isn’t like a firewall or anti-virus software. There’s no reason why you couldn’t install all three packages. The more protection you get, the better. But make sure you keep them up to date. Also note that most of the free packages will require you to run regular scans manually.

Keep Windows Up to Date

It’s essential that you turn on Windows Update and leave it on. Updates are released by Microsoft on a monthly basis and, although some might require you to reboot your PC, the slight inconvenience is well worth it for the added security and peace of mind.

Keep Your Software Up to Date

Make sure you regularly check for general and security updates for the software you use the most. You can find these on the manufacturers’ websites.

Always Check Email Attachments Before Opening Them
It’s always a good idea to check all email attachments for viruses. Save them to your hard disk first, then, in Windows Explorer, right-click the file and select Scan With [Your Anti-Virus Software] before you open it. If you receive a suspicious-looking email attachment from someone you know, you could email that person to ask if she did intend to send it to you. It could be that a virus on her computer has forwarded itself to people in her address book, in which case she would probably like to be notified.

Use a Secure Internet Browser
Browsers like the latest versions of Firefox or Internet Explorer provide much of the protection you need. In Windows 7, the protected mode in Internet Explorer that denies any software running in the browser access to the rest of the operating system is an extra bonus.

Get Spam and Phishing Filtering for Your Email Software
Everyone knows what spam is. Phishing emails, however, are the messages that purport to be from a real bank or credit card company asking you to type your personal details into a website. I’ve seen some of the most net-savvy people caught out like this.

Never Click Anything You Don’t Explicitly Mean To

If you haven’t gone to a website with the express intention of clicking items, maybe to install a browser plug-in or get a specific download, for instance, never click anything unless you know exactly what it is. Beware of reputable websites, such as YouTube, where viruses are occasionally posted disguised as a codec that is required to play a video. If you are ever in doubt, simply don’t click it!

Look for the Padlock or the Green Bar

When shopping online or when visiting any website that requires you to enter personal information, look for the padlock, which is a visual method for your browser to tell you that the website is encrypting any data sent back and forth using a valid security certificate.

What browser you use will determine where this is located. The latest security convention in browsers is to color code the address bar. The address bar is displayed as green if the site is okay and orange or red if you should use caution or avoid the site.

Not all web browsers will use colored address bars, and they may display the padlock in different ways and in different areas of the browser. You should refer to the Help menu for your specific browser for more advice on this. Never Give Private Details Online Unless You Have To Shopping for a credit card or car insurance is one thing, but many websites will unnecessarily ask for personal details that too many people are all too willing to give away. At best, these details are used to send you spam; at worst, they are used to steal your identity.

Keep Backups

Make sure you keep regular backups of your data somewhere away from your Windows installation, maybe on an external USB hard drive, for instance. Windows has a built-in backup utility (which is much improved in Windows 7), but third-party packages offer backup solutions, too.

Keep the Driver CDs and Manuals for Your PC

Always safeguard the discs and manuals that come with your PC. These will prove invaluable if Windows ever needs to be reinstalled. Make sure you keep them somewhere safe and together.

Keep Windows Maintained

You will have much more fun on your PC if you keep it tidy and maintained. Make sure you uninstall programs you don’t need, use the built-in tools or third-party tools to remove unnecessary files, and keep the registry clean.

Be Careful When You Throw Away Your PC

When your PC comes to the end of its useful life, make sure you download a utility that will securely erase the hard disk by overwriting the data several times. If you can, also remove the erased hard disk and dispose of it separately. Discarded PCs can contain a wealth of sensitive information that makes them a bargain find for identity thieves.

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Advantages Of Having An Facebook Email Address

Advantages Of Having An Facebook Email Address

By   12:15   No comments:

With no boundaries to stop, Facebook has already into the prime mean of internet – An Email Service for its users.  But, Why would one want to set up a Facebook email address and How does email work with messages?  What ever it is, first you need to create your Facebook email to know and to learn further on this.

If you have not set up your Facebook email till now, here are the steps to do so.

To set up a free @facebook.com address, go to your Messages view and click the "Claim your Facebook email" link.

Your email address will match your public username, for example:

Profile: facebook.com/username

Email: username@facebook.com

If you don’t have a username yet, you can choose one when you create your email address.

Once you set up your email address, people can email you using any traditional email system (e.g., Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail), and the emails will be delivered to your Facebook Messages. When you send messages to external email addresses, the emails will be formatted to look like Facebook messages, including your name, your profile picture and your message.

Benefits Of Facebook Email Address:

There are many benefits to claiming your Facebook email address:

• It’s free and easy to set up.

• Having your email integrated with your messages, chats and texts makes it easier to check them all at once. And if you’re looking for a message later, you don’t have to worry about how it was sent since all your different types of messages are in one place.

• Your Facebook messages are compatible with traditional email systems (e.g., Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail). When people send you emails from these external systems, they’re delivered directly to your Facebook Messages. And when you send messages to external email addresses, they’re formatted to look like your messages on Facebook, including your name and profile picture along with your message.

• Owning your @facebook.com address makes it easier for friends and family who are not on Facebook yet to connect with you.

• Your other email addresses may change over time, but your Facebook email never does.

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