How to use web-based email accounts safely
Webmail, such as Hotmail or Yahoo! mail, means using an internet browser to read your mail. It allows you to stay in touch using different machines. However, it needs the same caution as a desktop mail system and it has a few security risks of its own.
General webmail safety tips
- Use webmail services from well-known and trusted companies.
- Enable spam filtering or switch to a webmail provider that can do this (see Stop spyware).
- Use a strong password to login (see Use strong passwords).
- Only connect on a public computer (see Use public computers carefully) when you have an encrypted connection (indicated by a padlock in the bottom right hand side of your browser window and the letters ‘https://’ at the beginning of the website address).
- Be very wary about attachments in emails from unknown or untrusted sources. Make sure you have anti-virus software installed (see Install anti-virus software).
- Be wary of email frauds.
Don’t lose your old email messages
Remember that some webmail clients may delete email messages if you exceed a storage quota or don’t access your account for an extended period of time. If your archive of email messages is important, consider a paid-for service or using a webmail service without these restrictions.
Block HTML format emails
Some emails are formatted using plain text but some are sent using HTML, like web pages. These can contain pictures, clickable web links and, potentially, viruses and other nasties. Consequently, if your webmail client allows it, block HTML-formatted emails.
You should be able to view this content on an email-by-email basis depending on whether you trust or know the sender or not.
In Hotmail, click on Options then Mail Display Settings. Then click on the Automatically suppress Internet content in messages button and then the Warn me whenever I click a link that is not known to be safe button. Finally, click OK to save the changes.
HTML content is automatically suppressed in Google Mail.
If you use another webmail client, look for similar security options and enable them.
No comments:
Post a Comment