Email Safety: Threats and Precautions
In 2019, 3.9 billion individuals used emails and their number is set to grow to 4.48 billion users in 2024 (Statista, 2021).
List of Threats to Emails
- Spam emails that use up your server space.
- Infected attachments you receive.
- Phishing attacks that trick you into clicking on links to have access to your personal information then threaten you.
Important Key Words to Keep in Mind
- End-to-end encryption is the method that stops third parties from accessing data shared between the sender and the receiver.
- Multifactor authentication is the method that provides an extra layer of verification once you enter your password to access your email.
Tips to Protect your Email
- Use end-to-end encrypted email services such as outlook, yahoo, iCloud mail…etc.
- Use multifactor authentication.
- Separate your personal email from your work email.
- Don’t recycle passwords, use different passwords for different accounts.
- Use a VPN when you need to check your email while connected to a public Wi-Fi network.
- Never include sensitive information, and never accept sending them if asked to.
- Don’t click on links before validating them and checking if the website address is correct.
- Never open unexpected attachments; even from known senders.
- Scan emails and attachments for malware. Make sure that junk/spam filters are active.
- Don’t click unsubscribe in spam emails, it will generate more spam.
- Don’t use public devices to reach your emails.
- Don’t provide your email to untrusted websites or online services.
- Don’t ignore security updates.
- Add a security statement to the end of your emails, asking them not to be forwarded.
- Use a specific signature to confirm your identity.
- Don’t broadcast the email when sending to multiple receivers, only CC them.
Always double-check the authenticity of the emails before clicking on any links or downloading any attachments, and directly delete any spam messages.