Email

Play an Anti-Phishing Game

November 26, 2007

Computer scientists at Carnegie-Mellon University have found using games to educate users about phishing scams is more effective than expecting us to read security manuals. As part of their research, they developed Anti-Phishing Phil, an interactive game that explains how to spot phishing cues in emails, and when to use search engines to find legitimate [...]

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Twitter Wants to Know What You Are Doing

November 20, 2007

“What are you doing?” Twitter is a micro-blogging social networking site that asks that one question, and gives you 140 characters to broadcast an answer to all your friends, family and co-workers. Intrigued by the possibilities? Here are a few guides to get you started: MasterNewMedia’s Twitter – A Beginner’s Guide , Caroline Middlebrook’s Big [...]

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How to Use Gmail as a Spam Filter for Your Pop3 Email

November 13, 2007

In addition to being an excellent choice for web-based email, Google’s Gmail can also be used as a spam-filtering front end to your existing email client. For two slightly different approaches on how to do this, read Dylan at Mboffin or John Zeratsky.

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Best Defense Against Phishing

November 7, 2007

The best defense against spoof (fake or phishing) emails is to be educated and informed about how to spot them. eBay has a good tutorial on how to protect yourself, as does Stop-Phishing.com from the University of Indiana. Number one tip: when visiting a site in response to an email that asks for some web [...]

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Forwarded Emails

August 28, 2007

In addition to the sheer annoyance of receiving forwarded emails with hundreds of email addresses visible in the body of the message, warning you about something or another (and urging you to email all your friends), there is a high probability that the message itself is simply not true. Next time you get one, instead [...]

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Gmail and Executable Attachments

August 14, 2007

In an effort to combat the spread of computer viruses, Google’s Gmail does not allow you to send or receive executable files even if they are in a zipped format. Although many blogs have reported ways around this, most of these violate Google’s terms of service, and your Gmail account could be terminated. The simplest [...]

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Empty Inbox

April 26, 2007

Does an empty email inbox sound like an unattainable goal? Here’s advice from two savvy bloggers who claim it is possible. Narendra Rocherolle’s “Clearing Your Inbox with Minimal Pain” and Leo Notenboom’s “Taming Email.” For more on stress-free productivity, pick up a copy of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done.”

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Email Etiquette

January 30, 2007

Although most of us have been using email for years, there are some basic rules of email etiquette that are worth repeating. For example, when replying to a message, be sure to include enough of the previous message to give context to your reply. For more email tips, read EmailReplies, Learn the Net , or [...]

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What is a Botnet?

January 23, 2007

Recent increases in spam mail can be traced to botnets. According to Leo Notenboom, “a botnet is a networked collection of computers infected with software that can be remotely controlled to awaken and perform some task. Typically that task is to send email. Lots of email. Lots of spam.” You can protect yourself from getting [...]

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HotMail Clickable Links

September 12, 2006

In its default configuration, HotMail does not display clickable links. You can change this for all messages from all senders (not recommended), or for a single message for one time use, or for all messages from a sender you trust. The last two alternatives can be chosen by clicking on one of the following options [...]

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