Archives - Email


What’s a denial-of-service attack?

A denial-of-service (DoS) attack occurs when genuine users are unable to access information systems, devices, or other network resources due to the activities of a malicious cyber threat actor. Services affected may involve email, websites, online accounts (e.g., banking), or other services that rely on the affected computer or network. A denial-of-service is accomplished by […]

Don’t open that .zip attachment

Email attachments are to some degree unavoidable in normal personal and business communications. However, it’s a good idea to minimize your exposure. Don’t open any attachments from people not in your contacts list, and ask senders if they can share the document via a cloud link instead (much safer).

Do not send personally identifiable information via standard email

There’s no undoing an email (with limited exceptions if you’re in an Microsoft Exchange environment). Plus, email security is not as strong as you might expect, especially if you aren’t using email encryption. For these reasons, never give out your sensitive data in an email.

Use cloud sharing instead of attachments when possible

Email attachments are ubiquitous, but risky – you never know what they might include. It’s usually safer to share content via links to cloud services, since you’re not actually downloading anything onto your system.

Set up email filters to keep risky messages at bay

All major consumer email services offer filtering options, with which you can choose what happens to any message that’s from a specific sender and/or contains a particular subject line or words. For example, you can immediately archive any email with “deal” or “unsubscribe” in its body. This can help you weed out risky messages without […]

A guide to defending yourself from advanced phishing attacks

The word “phishing” might conjure up images of relaxing by a lake or stream to catch some fish, but there’s nothing laid-back about it. Phishing campaigns lure you with seemingly must-click offers – anything from get-rich-quick schemes to insistent security updates – and then steal your personal data. While phishing is among the oldest and […]