February 21, 2009

More email security tips

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  • Date: November 11th, 2008
  • Author: Chad Perrin

Email security is about a lot more than just using a good password on your POP or IMAP server. Perhaps the most important part of email security is ensuring you don’t shoot yourself in the foot.

In February this year, I listed five basic email security tips that everyone should employ. The following is a list of five more good pieces of email security advice:

  1. Turn off automated addressing features. As communication software accumulates more and more automated convenience features, we’ll see more and more cases of accidentally selecting the wrong recipients. A prime example is Microsoft Outlook’s “dreaded auto-fill feature“, where it is all too easy to accidentally select a recipient adjacent to your intended recipient in the drop-down list. This can be particularly problematic when discussing private matters such as business secrets.
  2. Use BCC when sending to multiple recipients. It’s a bad idea, from a security perspective, to share email addresses with people who have no need for them. It is also rude to share someone’s email address with strangers without permission. Every time you send out an email to multiple recipients with all the recipients’ names in the To: or CC: fields, you’re sharing all those email addresses with all the recipients. Email addresses that are not explicitly meant to be shared with the entire world should, in emails addressed to multiple recipients, be specified in the BCC: field — because each person will then be able to see that he or she is a recipient, but will not be able to see the email addresses of anyone else in the BCC: field.
  3. Save emails only in a safe place. No amount of encryption for sent emails will protect your privacy effectively if, after receiving and decrypting an email, you then store it in plain text on a machine to which other people have access. Sarah Palin found out the hard way that Webmail providers don’t do as good a job of ensuring stored email privacy as we might like, and many users’ personal computers are not exactly set up with security in mind, as in the case of someone whose MS Windows home directory is set up as a CIFS share with a weak password.
  4. Only use private accounts for private emails. Any email you share with the world is likely to get targeted by spammers — both for purposes of sending mail to it and spoofing that email address in the From: field of the email headers. The more spammers and phishers spoof your email address that way, the more likely your email address is to end up on spam blocker blacklists used by ISPs and lazy mail server sysadmins, and the more likely you are to have problems with your emails not getting to their intended recipients.
  5. Double-check the recipient, every time — especially on mailing lists. Accidentally replying directly to someone who sent an email to a mailing list, when you meant to reply to the list, isn’t a huge security issue. It can be kind of inconvenient, though, especially when you might never notice your email didn’t actually get to the mailing list. The converse, however, can be a real problem: if you accidentally send something to the list that was intended strictly for a specific individual, you may end up publicly saying something embarrassing or, worse, accidentally divulging secrets to hundreds of people you don’t even know.

Filed under e-mail, MS Outlook, tech hints by al

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Basic e-mail security tips

  • Date: February 25th, 2008
  • Author: Chad Perrin

There’s a lot of information out there about securing your e-mail. safe cialis Much of it is advanced and doesn’t apply to the typical end user. Configuring spam filters such as SpamAssassin, setting up encrypted authentication on mail servers, and e-mail gateway virus scanner management are not basic end-user tasks.

When one can find end-user e-mail security tips, they’re usually specific to a single mail client or mail user agent such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Mutt. This sort of information is of critical importance to many users of these applications, but there are few sources of more general security information for e-mail users that aren’t specific to a given client application.

The following is a short list of some important security tips that apply to all e-mail users — not just users of a specific application. They are listed in the order one should employ them, from the first priority to the last. This priority is affected not only by how important a given tip is, but also by how easy it is to employ; the easier something is to do, the more likely one is to actually do it and move on to the next tip.

  1. Never allow an e-mail client to fully render HTML or XHTML e-mails without careful thought. At the absolute most, if you have a mail client such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird that can render HTML e-mails, you should configure it to render only simplified HTML rather than rich HTML — or “Original HTML” as some clients label the option. Even better is to configure it to render only plain text. When rendering HTML, you run the risk of identifying yourself as a valid recipient of spam or getting successfully phished by some malicious security cracker or identity thief. My personal preference is, in fact, to use a mail user agent that is normally incapable of rendering HTML e-mail at all, showing everything as plain text instead.
  2. If the privacy of your data is important to you, use a local POP3 or IMAP client to retrieve e-mail. This means avoiding the use of Web-based e-mail services such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail for e-mail you wish to keep private for any reason. Even if your Webmail service provider’s policies seem sufficiently privacy-oriented to you, that doesn’t mean that employees won’t occasionally break the rules. Some providers are accused of selling e-mail addresses to spamming “partners.” Even supposedly security-oriented Webmail services such as Hushmail can often be less than diligent in providing security to their users’ e-mail.
  3. It’s always a good idea to ensure that your e-mail authentication process is encrypted, even if the e-mail itself is not. The reason for this is simple: You do not want some malicious security cracker “listening in” on your authentication session with the mail server. If someone does this, that person can then send e-mails as you, receive your e-mail, and generally cause all kinds of problems for you (including spammers). Check with your ISP’s policies to determine whether authentication is encrypted and even how it is encrypted (so you might be able to determine how trivial it is to crack the encryption scheme used).
  4. Digitally sign your e-mails. As long as you observe good security practices with e-mail in general, it is highly unlikely that anyone else will ever have the opportunity to usurp your identity for purposes of e-mail, but it is still a possibility. If you use an encryption tool such as PGP or GnuPG to digitally sign your e-mails, though, recipients who have your public key will be able to determine that nobody could have sent the e-mail in question without having access to your private key — and you should definitely have a private key that is well protected.
  5. If, for some reason, you absolutely positively must access an e-mail account that does not authorize over an encrypted connection, never access that account from a public or otherwise unsecured network. Ever. Under any circumstances.

Be aware of both your virtual and physical surroundings when communicating via e-mail. Be careful. Trust no one that you do not absolutely have to trust, and recognize the dangers and potential consequences of that trust.

Your e-mail security does not just affect you; it affects others, as well, if your e-mail account is compromised. Even if the e-mail account itself is not compromised, your computer may be if you do not take reasonable care with how you deal with e-mails — and that, in turn, can lead to affecting both you and others adversely as well.

Don’t be a victim.

Filed under e-mail, MS Outlook, tech hints by al

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February 19, 2009

10+ ways to find out someone’s e-mail address

  • Date: November 21st, 2008
  • Author: Susan Harkins

It would be nice if you could just pull out a directory and look up the e-mail address of anyone you wanted to contact. Unfortunately, a bit more resourcefulness is required. Here’s an assortment of strategies to try when you can’t seem to run down an e-mail address you need.

Technology is great… when it works. It seems, though, that the more advanced our technology grows, the more complex the simple tasks become. Finding someone’s e-mail address is a perfect example — there’s no huge yellow book full of e-mail addresses. The system at large is huge, and individual choices are still too elusive. Hunting down a current e-mail address is a challenge, but it isn’t impossible.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

#1: Look in your own e-mail folders

This tip seems obvious, but if you haven’t corresponded with someone in a long time, you might not remember that his or her e-mail address is sitting in one of your folders. To find an e-mail address in one of your own mail client folders:

  • Use your client’s search feature. You might start with your Inbox and personal folders that have some relationship to that person, such as a project or customer folder. Don’t forget your Delete, Sent, and Trash folders. (Outlook 2007 now makes it easy to perform a comprehensive search.)
  • If a name search doesn’t turn up anything, run a search on the person’s domain, if you know it.
  • Make sure you tell the search feature to check header fields and the full text of all messages.
  • Search for only the first name, the last name, or even a nickname.
  • Search for a subject or keyword that this person (or you) might have used.

#2: Be an anarchist — call them

At the risk of sounding flip, a quick call can solve your problem, as long as the person wants you to have the e-mail address. You don’t even have to talk to the person directly. The receptionist who answers the phone will probably have a list of e-mail addresses for employees. If, on the other hand, you’re trying to find a long lost lover or friend, that’s probably not going to work (unless, of course, you know where they work… and if you know where they work, chances are they’re not lost).

#3: Check a business card

Most people include an e-mail address on their business cards, so make a quick pass through the ones you have. You don’t have to look for the specific person; pull out a card from anyone at the same company or organization. Just knowing the domain can help you (see #1 and #8).

#4: Search user groups and newsgroups

Just about everyone who’s online takes advantage of a newsgroup or user group. Sometimes, you can find a message, including a person’s e-mail address, using an Internet search engine, such as groups.google.com. If the person has posted on any UseNet group, Google will return a link to the post, which might lead to a full e-mail address. (UseNet is a network of worldwide Internet discussion systems, or user groups and forums.)

#5: Use an Internet search engine

Google is now a verb! Simply Google the person and see what turns up. Now, the problem with this solution is that you might get nothing  – or you might get dozens of hits, especially if the name is common or shared with a public personality. Use this method early in your search, but check only the first few links. Reviewing dozens of links takes too much time. If the other methods fail, you can always return to a search engine.

A general search will generate more hits than a filtered search, such as searching newsgroups (see #4). Google is just one search engine among many, so don’t limit yourself; try others. A meta search engine is often a better choice because they rely on many search technologies, not just one.

#6: Search for an address

An Internet search engine, such as Google, can find more than names. If a name doesn’t turn up anything, search on something else, like the person’s street address or employer. The more unique the search, the more likely you are to find something useful.

#7: Guess!

If you know the person’s domain, you can guess at the name component. This is especially easy if the domain is a business or organization because most companies and organizations use consistent rules for creating e-mail addresses. Find the right rules and you might get lucky. When there’s no discernable pattern, just keep guessing. There are a number of common patterns:

  • firstname.lastname@domain.com

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  • firstname_lastname@domain.com
  • firstnamelastname@domain.com
  • firstinitiallastname@domain.com
  • firstinitial_lastname@domain.com
  • lastname@domain.com
  • firstnamelastnameinitial@domain.com

If you don’t know the domain, use an Internet search engine to search for the company or organization’s name. Doing so might turn up a domain name. If there’s a Web page, but no contact information, try the Web site’s domain name. If there’s a contact name, but not the one you’re looking for, check existing e-mail contacts for a consistent pattern. If you find a pattern and you know the contact’s full name, apply the pattern, send a message, and hope for the best. Or simply send a message to the listed contact and ask for the person’s correct e-mail address.

#8: Find a new e-mail address

E-mail addresses change all the time. A person can go through several in just a few years. A few online services can help if the e-mail address you have no longer works:

But don’t get the wrong idea about these services. There’s no huge network running spiders to glean addresses. People must register their old and new addresses with these services. When it works, it works great. But mostly, this type of service is a long shot.

#9: Try an online directory

It would be nice if the Internet had a phone book or even a 411 service. Unfortunately, e-mail addresses, by nature, are elusive, at best. There are a number of online directory services to try:

These directories aren’t generally too reliable. A quick search on them returned only one business-related e-mail address for myself. Many online directories charge for their services, so be careful.

#10: Search online networking sites

A number of people enjoy social networks, both for business and pleasure. Most will make you register to search their membership, but generally, registering is free. If the person you’re looking for belongs to one of these networks, you can contact them via the service’s online contact feature:

#11: Take a long shot

When all else fails, try soc.net-people. This newsgroup allows you to ask for help locating someone you believe has an e-mail address. To use this service, post a message asking for help. Describe the person to the best of your abilities, including as much relevant information for positively identifying them as possible. Be sure to include your e-mail address so members with information can contact you. It’s a long shot, for sure, but it can’t hurt to try.

Filed under e-mail by al

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E-mail multiple recipients without sharing e-mail addresses

  • Date: October 31st, 2008
  • Author: Susan Harkins

Don’t share e-mail addresses with the crowd. When sending e-mail to several people, use this trick to hide their addresses.

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Sharing e-mail addresses is frowned upon, but that’s exactly what you do every time you send an e-mail to more than one person — whether you’re creating or forwarding the message. Everyone who receives the e-mail has the address for every other recipient.  Within the same organization, or an intimate group of friends and family, that’s okay. However, it isn’t okay if you’re sending a promotion or special discount to 100 clients who don’t know one another. Depending on the nature of your business, you could lose your job.One quick option is to send the e-mail to yourself and bbc all the recipients. Doing so hides all e-mail addresses but yours. The downside of this technique is that bcc messages tend to get snagged by spam filters. That means your mail might never reach some of the recipients.

A more dependable way to send an e-mail to a list of undisclosed recipients follows:

  1. Open the New button’s drop-down list and select Contact.
  2. Type Undisclosed recipients in the Full Name control. You don’t have to use that name; give your list a meaningful name that describes the recipients or the message’s intent.
  3. Enter your e-mail address in the E-mail field.
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  4. Click Save And Close.
  5. Create a new e-mail message.
  6. Click the To button and choose Undisclosed recipients.
  7. Click To and highlight the necessary addresses.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Enter your message and click Send.

Remember that the name you give the undisclosed contact (step 2) will show in the e-mail’s header, so give that name a bit of creative and careful thought.

Filed under e-mail, MS Outlook by al

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E-mail background

Q:
One of my friends who sends me e-mails all the time always has a pretty light blue color as her e-mail background. It looks so nice and I was wondering if you could tell me how I could do that for mine as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

A:
That's an excellent question! I mean, who wouldn't want to spruce up their e-mails every once in awhile? Whether you're just sending a fun e-mail off to one of your friends or if you're sending out an e-mail invitation, it's nice to know you have some different options when it comes to how those e-mails will look before you send them off. And the best way to dress up your e-mails is to simply add a little color!

A colored background is a little less extravagant than a personal wallpaper design or even a stationery piece, but it still gives off a nice new feel to the e-mail message. I personally love changing up my e-mail background colors, depending on who I'm sending the e-mail to. My friends and family always compliment me on my choices as well. While some recipients don't like to receive e-mails that are too "busy," others do. And as long as you still make it easy to read, it's just something fun to play around with!

So, by now, I bet you're anxious to know how you can make this happen for your own e-mails. Am I right? Well, that's what this tip is all about, so we might as well get started. I'm going to show you how you can change your e-mail backgrounds for these different e-mail programs: Outlook Express, Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail, AOL and Thunderbird. Hopefully, the client you use is in there somewhere and you can start to do this as soon as possible!

Outlook Express

First up is OE. Go ahead and click on the Create Mail button, just like you would to compose a brand new e-mail message. From there, go to the Format menu and then click on Background. Next, choose Color and leave your mouse on it for a little bit. A new drop down menu will appear where you can choose which color you'd like to use for your background. There aren't a whole lot of choices in OE, but there are some pretty ones and I'm sure you can find something that will work. Just click on the color you want and the background in your new e-mail message will automatically fill with the new color.

You can then go up to the "A" letter and choose a color for your text. Make sure you choose something that will jive well with your background color. Otherwise, your recipient won't be able to read what you write. Once you've chosen your colors, you can type out your e-mail message, add your recipient's e-mail address and then send it off. Yes!

Yahoo!

Now, Yahoo! does this whole background color thing a little differently, but it will still give off the same effect. Click on the Compose button to start a new message. From there, go down to your toolbar. You'll see all kinds of different things there like the bold, italics and underline buttons, for example. You'll also see one that looks like a highlighter and it has a yellow line underneath it. Click on that to choose your background color, but keep in mind that it will work more like a highlighter, instead of filling your complete background. Next, click on the "T" button and choose your text color. Again, make sure your two colors will look okay together. Then just start typing your e-mail message. Your background color will highlight your text color to make your background look uniform. Once you're done typing, insert your recipient's e-mail address and then send it!

Hotmail

For Hotmail, click on New Message and wait for the new window to come up. Once you're there, go down to your toolbar and look for the little icon of a paint bucket with paint spilling out of it. It will have a yellow line underneath it as well. Click on that and choose your background color. There are tons of colors to choose from in Hotmail! When you're done with that, go over one icon and click on the "A" letter and choose your text color. You can then type your message and send the e-mail off.

Gmail

Once you log in to your Gmail account, click on the Compose Mail link. Find the toolbar and look for the two "T" letters. The first one is for your text color and the second is for the background color. Gmail works a lot like Yahoo! though, because it also does the whole highlighting thing. Choose both of your colors and then just start typing. Again, the color you chose for your background will just highlight the color you chose for your text and it will look like a complete background color when you're finished. Yes, there will be some white area in the e-mail where you don't type, but the rest of the e-mail will look super cool. When you're done, push the Send button and off it will go!

AOL

Go ahead and get into your AOL e-mail area. Click on Mail Options and choose Write, in order to compose a new message. You should then see two "A" buttons in the toolbar. One is for the text and the other is for the background. Click on the first one for your text color and then the second one to choose your background color. AOL also works as a highlighter, so nothing will come up until you start typing. Again, make sure you choose two colors that will accent each other so that your recipient will be able to read it. Type your e-mail message and then send it off. That's all it takes!

Thunderbird

And last, but not least, there's Mozilla Thunderbird. Once you open Thunderbird, click on Write to start a new message. In the toolbar, you'll see two squares overlapping each other. One will probably be black and one will be white. The bottom one is your background color. Click on it to choose the color you'd like to use. The top one is for the text color. Click on it and choose an appropriate color. Once you've made your selections, type your message and send it.

So, as you can see, changing your e-mail background color is a very simple process, no matter which e-mail program you use. If you take the time to do it, your recipients will have something new to look at besides all the same old boring black and cialis rebate white colors that most e-mails have. Again, it's not as far out as a wallpaper or stationery piece, but it does a good job of giving your e-mails a more upbeat feel. You have to love that!

Filed under e-mail by al

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