EMAIL

“You Got Mail”! Ah yes, what a great thing – sometimes!!!

If it is from family or friends, you look forward to seeing what they have to say, and what possibly they’ve sent you! BE AWARE – because they may have unintentionally just sent you something you (or they) didn’t expect – a virus embedded in a file!

Well, here’s what I do and if you think it might be worth it, you can do the same.

First of all, I DO NOT use my Windows Outlook Email to receive any email!! I simply open and read my email on my Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) web site. If per chance, you don’t want to use your ISP’s web mail, there’s plenty of ones out there that offer large (2Gig) free email accounts (i.e., Google, Yahoo, etc.).

If you think you need further security with you email correspondence (i.e., anonymity and encryption), there’s services that provide these. One that I’ve used in the past and was happy with their free service was Mailvault from MetroPipe Network Services. You can do a web search and find different providers of these services. Like anything, check them out good before opting to use them!

Back to email, itself! If you don’t recognize who it is from – delete it! No, you didn’t win the UK lottery without even entering it; you can’t help the poor soul from some far off country trying to claim and get to their lost money; nor, help some crooked banker out from so far off land trying to close an unclaimed account!

Also, if you insist on using an email client on your system (i.e., Outlook), DO NOT have the settings to where there is a “preview pane” opened. If you do, you’ve already “let loose” any malicious code contained in the email!

Here are some common extensions for email to pay attention to:

Should Be Allowed: .DOC .PDF .TXT .XLS .ZIP
Should Not Be Allowed: .BAT .COM .EXE .HLP .PIF .SCR

Last, but by no means least, be sure you have your system protected with some good software (see my previous post on this)! BTW, all the web based email providers that I’m aware of, provide this on their site(s).