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, for both Outlook Express, IncrediMail and email in general.
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 (Outlook Express only, not possible in
IncrediMail).
- 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
Neither Outlook Express or Incredimail have any 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 and up until recently not at all for IncrediMail. So when looking
for an antivirus solution make sure that it works with your email client.
Because Incredimail is a relatively new email client it doesn’t have the
antivirus support of outlook express. Two antivirus solutions that I know and
that work with both clients are Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal Pro
and AVG Anti virus (latest
version). I will be reviewing both in a forthcoming article
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 need 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 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.
Again, these procedures/practices are applicable to email in general and not
just IncrediMail or Outlook Express.
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 .
Commercial Anti-Spam software
Although both IncrediMail and and Outlook Express have the capability of
blocking and filtering spam they are not as comprehensive and easy to set up and
maintain as commercial anti-spam software solutions.
Spam Inspector sets ups itself and has also built in anti-phishing
(email scams) support and works with both IncrediMail and Outlook Express.
It is only one of many commercial spam solutions a review of other spam
software will be available soon.
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. Outlook express and Incredimail have
built in capabilities that can be used for filtering or blocking Spam.
Outlook Express Spam Articles and Tutorials:
Unsafe Attachments Blocked in Outlook Express
outlook express can block unsafe attachments ! Is it blocking ones that
aren't unsafe? find out how it works and how to configure unsafe attachment
blocking.
Block Spam
in Outlook Express-How do you block spam in Outlook Express? Microsoft
Outlook Express can be configured using message rules to filter out/block junk
email (spam).
Configuring Outlook Express Message rules to Block
attachments
This tutorial is a step by step
guide on how to configure outlook express message rules to block
attachments.
Configuring Message Rules To block spam in Outlook
Express
Message rules are used for filtering
incoming messages. Learn how to configure Outlook Express to block spam using
message rules.
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.
