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Email and Computer Security

Email on personal computers has become an important tool in exchanging and sharing information. It is quick, easy and cheap. Unfortunately it has drawbacks, that can have disastrous effects.

Spoof / Fake Email

Example: Spoof Bank Email

Spoof or Fake emails are emails that are not really from the people they appear to be from. They look genuine, often bearing the logo, trademark or design of a well known business, but they are nothing to do with them at all. Although the emails themselves are not harmful they can have serious consequences. Typically these emails will appear to be from a Bank or a business like the on-line auction web site eBay asking to you confirm your log in details. Most businesses will not ask you to confirm your login, password or bank details by email, instead they would most likely ask you check them next time you log in to their web site.

This type of email is currently successfully being used to "steal" peoples identities and use their credit card information - it is known as "Phishing". If you are at all suspicious forward the email complete to the business concerned at an email address you obtain for yourself from their web site, then delete the email.

WARNING:

There are a large number of emails in circulation claiming to be from various banks asking the recipient to check their on-line details. Versions of this email may appear to be from any well known bank or financial institution.

These are not genuine emails, they are Spoofs designed to steal identifying information from people. Do not open them, or click on any links contained in them, or reply to them.

Spam / Junk Email

This is usually just annoying and causes no real harm, but you can protect yourself from being bothered by it. First, be careful who you give your email address to. A good idea is to have one email address that you give to friends and family, and use a different one when you sign up for services and buy goods on the Internet. You should then only get genuine email on your "personal" email address, but the other address is more likely to have the "suspect" emails. In any event you can often recognise the junk mail by the subject line. No matter how inviting it may seem, very often the email itself has nothing to do with the subject.

Some Spam / Junk Mail Examples

Some email software has the facility to detect Spam and Junk emails. It usually moves the emails in to a special "Junk" folder so you can be fairly sure that anyhitng in the folder is not worth reading. You can also buy software that detects Spam and Junk emails that works with most email sotware.

Viruses and Other Threats

Probably the most talked about and damaging problems conveyed by emails (and other methods) are Viruses and Worms. These are a nuisance and are potentially very serious. In the simplest terms a virus is a program that replicates; that is, infects another program, boot sector, partition sector, or document that supports macros. Most viruses only replicate, though, many do a large amount of damage as well. A worm is a program that makes copies of itself; for example, from one disk drive to another. The worm may do damage and compromise the security of the computer.

Your first line of defence is your own common sense, simply don't open emails if you are not totally sure of the identity of the sender. Look out for clues like poor spelling in the subject line, like the Spam / Junk Mail Examples. If your email software shows a preview of your emails turn this option off, as simply previewing an email can be enough to allow a virus it contains to operate and infect your PC. The simple answer is to invest in some Internet security software, this will help protect you against most potential threats - as long as you remember to keep the software up to date.

There are many types of intrusive attack that your computer may be subjected to.

More Help

Microsoft's latest Internet browser, Windows Internet Explorer 7, has additional built in security features: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx

If you are concerned about any email your receive, contact the business who is supposed to have sent it to try and verify the content (in the case of a suspected spoof email) or try one of the web sites below: