Are viruses, worms, trojans and sneaky parasites sucking the life out of your e-mail inbox and computer? Running out of ideas on how to secure your e-mail?
Every day new outbreaks are reported and there just seems to be no end to the mayhem they can cause. From deleted operating systems to crashed hard drives or just a never-ending cycle of infected e-mails, these types of files and their attachments are designed to irreparably damage your data or disable your system and that is exactly what they do. It is enough to drive the most resilient P.C. user to distraction. The good news is that you can secure your e-mail in several ways that will make it more difficult for these 'bugs' to gain access.
Below are some tips and tricks on how to protect your e-mail against these merciless attacks.
1) Preventing E-mail Worms and Viruses
If you think your anti-virus software is providing adequate protection, think again! Did you know that an e-mail worm can spread across the entire globe in just minutes? Compare this to how long it takes our faithful anti-virus vendors to analyze new worms, come up with a solution and the get signature updates out to us, the consumer. So what is the solution? Follow the five 'rules of thumb' below to secure your e-mail against worms and viruses.
Step 1: Identification
Learn how worms and viruses attach themselves to your e-mails. Most dangerous viruses are executable files that have become infected or are specifically designed to infect your system. Remember that windows blocks file extensions by default so you may not pick it up until it's too late. Rule one is: make sure you have 'file extension viewing' enabled on your system.
Step 2: Intention
Never open an executable attachment unless you know who it is from or have requested it to be sent to you. E-mail worms are sent to addresses found in an address book on an infected machine so even if you know and trust the sender you can still fall prey to one, without the senders consent or knowledge.
New worms will 'clone' the 'from' address so the e-mail you receive from somebody you know may not have been sent by them at all! It is imperative if you are to secure your e-mail that you are reasonably sure that the file is a legitimate one.
