|
Network Chico email
security
Email is one of the most popular uses of the Internet. However,
with billions of pieces of email sent daily few people seem to
understand just how insecure a form of communication email truly
is. Somewhat like sending a postcard, messages can be stored,
copied and read by others. The only way to secure email is through
the use of a digital ID to encrypt and digitally sign your email
messages. Encryption makes email messages nearly impossible for
anyone other than the intended recipient to read, and digitally
signing a message verifies that the message is authentic and
that it hasn't been tampered with in transit. In order to digitally
sign a message a digital ID is required. These can be purchased
from third party Certificate Authorities (CA) such as VeriSign, which offers two classes of ID
depending on the level of security required. Currently the basic
Class 1 ID costs $19.95 per year from VeriSign.
Another security issue with respect to email messages is that
of spam. Not only is spam annoying it can also be harmful if
the message contains some sort of virus, trojan horse or worm.
The first key to dealing with spam is learning to recognize it.
In general if an email contains any of the following characteristics
it is likely spam:
- Invalid return address
- Promotion of a product, service or company
- Promotion of a way to make money
- Notification of a prize or something for free
- Message doesn't reveal a physical address
- Message requests that you forward it to family, friends
or colleagues
There are a few tips that can help in the fight against spam.
The first and foremost is to use multiple email addresses. For
personal email guard your address with care. Give it only to
people you know and wish to communicate with and do not post
the address on web pages, in newsgroup postings or use the address
to subscribe to mailing lists unless there is a specific privacy
policy against giving out or selling your address. For any web
site, mailing list or other event that requires an email address
use an alternate address. Free email addresses such as ones available
from hotmail.com
(now offering 250MB storage) or mail.yahoo.com (now offering unlimited
storage) are good choices. Delete any message you suspect might
be spam from your inbox without reading it. If your Internet
Service Provider (ISP) has spam-filtering available then use
it. Do not respond to offers within emails to opt-out or be removed
from the mailing list unless you have thoroughly reviewed the
privacy policy of the email sender. Your response only verifies
a valid email address and instantly makes you a more likely target
of future spam.
Another important concern regarding spam and email in general
is the sending or receiving of viruses,
trojans or worms. Modern anti-virus
programs feature email scanning solutions to protect both incoming
and outgoing email from spreading problems across the Internet.
Network Chico recommends
the use of AVG Anti-virus by Grisoft. Available for workstations as well
as servers AVG anti-virus provides comprehensive antivirus
protection for personal computers.
10+ e-mail
best practices PDF
Now available: Download the NIST (National Institute of Standards and
Technology) Guidelines on Electronic
Mail Security special publication 800-45 (1124 KB PDF) from
Network Chico.
Check out the Network Chico
Anti-spam resources
for links to more information.
 
Additional security pages:
| Anti-virus | Browser
cookies | Email | Firewall | IPS
|
| Network | Passwords
| Registry | Server
| Spyware | Terms
| Wireless |
View current Windows security threats from:
|
