Email Security: Four Tips to Minimize Risk

Email Security: Four Tips to Minimize Risk

Email security is a huge issue ongoing everywhere today. You’ve probably heard tabloid news of presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, and how her emails may have been exploited.

… Well we’re not going to delve into that.

Rather, here’s a few tips of what you should do to keep your emails safe & secured.

Do not send the following information through email:

• Bank information, credit card information, any financial information
• Healthcare information
• Passwords & user credential
• Personal information pertaining to your social security

Don’t send any of these through email text, don’t send it as an attachment, just don’t send it. If a security breach does occur or if your email gets hacked, your sensitive information could be used without your permission and could damage your financial, personal and work life. We recommend other methods of delivering these information pieces, such as by fax. For extra security measures, you can also have your IT team set up encrypted emails (we’ll go over that soon).

Do not send anything that you’re not comfortable being public with

… that includes venting. Don’t write up an email to your coworker stating how angry you are over the fact that Mr. Bossman is a bad boss. You don’t know if your boss can monitor your emails and if that email may slip out publically.

Just don’t send anything you’re not comfortable with the chance of it being open to the public over the internet. Once it’s out there, it’s out there.

Just as side work ethic tip: don’t vent over social media either. You don’t know if it’ll come back to haunt you.

Do not open suspicious links

Be sure to look at the ‘sender’ field and verify who sent you a particular email. Remember, banks will never ask for your financial or credit card information through email. You don’t want to click on links that look phishy or suspicious – this could potentially be a hack into your data. Be sure you have an email server that provides an excellent spam filter and virus protection.

But if you do want to send an important email… encrypt it

If for some reason you need to send important information through email rather than by fax or in person, have your IT team set up encrypted email solutions for you and your business. We recommend trusted email servers such as Office 365 for the high security measures they provide. These encrypted emails require a two factor authentication in which you would need an additional password or key to obtained the information attached to the email.

Squeeze Technology can set you and your business up with encrypted email security. Be sure to contact us today.