ITK Has noticed the knowledge of our employees isn’t up to
standards on emails and email virus’. We are creating this small report to keep
you up to date on opening emails, email attachments and giving out details over
email. Also some simple features of emails.
BCC & CC
When sending emails of course you have your main recipient.
You can then add a CC this means carbon
copy and this person will also receive the email and the main recipient
will see that they have also been sent the email. A BCC is a blind carbon copy and this person can
also be sent the email but the main recipient and the CC will not have any
knowledge that they have received a copy of the email.
Rules
Microsoft office and other email clients have a very useful
feature built in called ‘Rules’ this feature allows you to control where
certain emails go or emails from certain senders. For example if you were
receiving junk emails from a company you could send any emails from this
recipient to your junk folder or any folder you create. This may be useful if
you receive a lot of important emails from a boss or work partner it may be
worth setting a rule so they all send to a certain folder where you can access
them easier.
Spam Filters
A Spam filter works like a rule apart from Microsoft office
will do this automatically and separate junk and spam without you knowing. I
will use built in rules to identify this and send it to junk or maybe even
automatically delete these emails.
Viruses
Viruses can be attached or embedded into emails without the
recipient knowing so you never know what link you or file you are actually
opening. In Microsoft outlook you can use a very useful feature called virus
checker. Also some email clients have anti-virus features built in so that when
a virus is detected you will be notified and the program will not allow you to
open the attachment. Also some anti-virus programs will have picked up on email
virus attachments. So check who has sent you the email and if you really need
to be opening the link or attachment before you actually do.
Phishing
Email phishing is becoming more common. It is where people
or groups of people create or try to create professional looking emails,
commonly from well established, highly respected organisations in order to get
to hand out important credentials. One very common case would be people
attempting to create a duplicate email from a bank asking you to ‘sing in’ or
handover details. Of course the clues will be in the email the senders email
may have a big clue in. most big companies will host their own domain for e.g.
it will be joe@barcalys.co.uk and not
something unprofessional such as joe@hotmail.com.
Another thing to take into consideration before handing over details are you
expecting an email asking to sing in or something along those lines. Also do
the obvious, check for spelling and grammar, a big company such as Barclay’s
will not make these simple mistakes. The picture below is a prime example of phishing,
banks will never ask you to give details in this manor without letting you
know.
