Email Security

Email is not only essential to large corporations but to small businesses and home users too. Here we will look at the security aspects of email and how to protect, control and monitor email use.

Email Security: Viruses and Spam

The two twin evils for all email users are Spam and Viruses. Spam is more of a nuisance (until phishing spam) while viruses are a real danger. Computer virus infection by email borne viruses and junk email are a daily occurrence for most email users.

The fight against virus infection and spam is not simply a matter of installing the right software. It is also a matter of adopting the correct procedures for handling email.

Most users install antivirus software on their system but then continue to open email attachments from people they don’t know!

We are going to look at email security from two standpoints –good practices and tools.

Email Anti Virus

One of the main source of computer virus infections today is email. Therefore it is essential that you take adequate measures to protect your system from email borne viruses.

As in the case of biological viruses like the flu there are two lines of defence -Prevention and containment.

Procedures for Preventing Computer Viruses in Email

So what can we do to prevent virus infection in the first place? If you follow these best practices you will greatly reduce the chances of a virus infection.

Never open an attachment without first having it scanned for viruses.
Save any attachments that you want to read to a temporary location on your hard drive and scan them for viruses.
Don’t open an email sent from someone you don’t know.
Consider moving all emails containing attachments to a separate folder.
Read messages in plain text not HTML if possible.
Install antivirus software and keep it up to date. –see antivirus software.
Ensure that the email client is configured to request permission before sending emails. This prevents a virus sending itself to all your contacts without you knowing.
Avoid infecting other systems or getting re-infected by containing the virus.

The above procedures/practices are applicable to email in general and not just IncrediMail or Outlook Express.

Preventing Viruses with Anti Virus Software

Most email clients don't have built in antivirus capability. Therefore it is essential to obtain third party antivirus software.

When selecting antivirus software ensure that it has the capability to scan email messages and attachments before they get opened.

There are many anti virus software packages available but not all of them work for email. So when looking for an antivirus solution make sure that it works with your email client.

Virus Containment

Although you may have taken all the necessary precautions you can still become infected with a virus. So what do you do if you become infected?

Stop spreading- The first thing is to ensure that it doesn’t spread to other systems either yours or someone else’s by isolating your system from other systems until your system is cleaned. If your system is on a network remove it from the network by removing the network cable. You may need to stay connected to the Internet to download virus removal tools. If possible use another system to download the tools an transfer using a floppy disk, CD, ash drive.
Remove virus- The virus needs to be removed from the system and infected files need to be cleaned. Check your anti virus software website for removal tools or the Microsoft security page.
Prevent re-infection – Before reconnecting your system to other systems you need to take steps to prevent re-infection.

Vulnerability Check Your Email

GFI have a set of vulnerability tests that you can run on your email system that check for various email threats. They work by sending you a series of emails designed to test for the vulnerability and are completely harmless. To check your system go to http://www.gfi.com/emailsecuritytest/.

Spam or Junk Email

Spam is more of a nuisance than a threat( until phishing spam) but it is growing at an alarming rate. A recent report (June 2004) in the Washington post estimated that Spam costs large corporations $2000 per employee each year.
Again as in the case of viruses we have 2 lines of defences. The first line is avoidance by good procedures/practices and the second is using anti Spam software to filter or block Spam.

Avoid Spam

So what can we do to avoid Spam in the first place? Here we will learn some best practices, which if followed, will greatly reduce the chances of a receiving junk email ,Spam or Unsolicited email.

What is spam or junk mail ? How do spammers get your email address? and tips and tools to prevent it in -An Introduction to Spam, Junk Mail, Unsolicited Email .

Then see my 5 Top Tips to avoid spam.

Phishing or email Scams

Most email scams are normally sent as spam i.e. they are unsolicited. This type of spam is becoming more common and can be extremely dangerous as it is effectively used for identity theft.

The term phishing is derived from fishing as the scammer is effectively fishing for confidential information like bank of credit card details. To learn more and protect yourself see my article - Phishing - A guide to Email scams.

It is not surprising that these type of scams are become widespread given how easy it is to pretend to be anyone you want on the Internet. If you want to see how take a look at Who Sent That Email .

Spam prevention using in-built Filtering and Spam software.

Spam prevention consists of blocking or filtering email based on certain criteria such as sender or content.

Most email clients have built in capabilities that can be used for filtering or blocking Spam but they are not as extensive and easy to use as commercial anti-spam software.

Incredimail Spam Articles and Tutorials:

Incredimail anti spam and junk email filter capabilities
Incredimail comes with built in anti spam or junk email features like blocked senders and approved sender filtering. Here we will look at what these are and how to use them

Using IncrediMail Junk Filter and Approved Senders list
Incredimail junk email filter and approved sender list filtering. Here we will look at and how to use it.

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