EMAIL INDISCRETIONS:
Is your email address being splashed around the net? Probably. What are your practices to
protect your friends email addresses? Well, what can you expect from them? Find out what
the Bcc: field does. It takes no effort at all to conceal a list of addresses.
You're not really to blame. Microsoft encourages sloppy practice. They indirectly benefit from it.
FORWARDING MAIL:
What do you do when you forward mail. You just click on something, write the address you want
to forward it to and click something else - done!
You have just forwarded someone's address (or more addresses) to someone who has no business knowing it. What will they do with it? If you forwarded a message because it may be of interest to someone else then what will they do?
So, it's pretty easy to see your address ending up in all sorts of places where it has no business being. What's this matter? Well, it's how viruses propagate. I have recieved viruses from friends, and mostly from people I don't even know. What if your address ends up on a spammer's list? What if it should end up with someone who has more malicious intentions? Do you have any idea what can be done to you by someone making malicious use of your email address? With a little interest and imagination someone can get you sacked. That's pretty easy unsophisticated abuse of your address.
MAILING LISTS:
People are all too keen on making their own email lists and using them. I'm not talking
about the formal lists that you can subscribe to. I'm on about people deciding to just
send messages to a list of people that they put together themselves. And so a message goes
off with a list of addresses in the "To:" field (computer illiterate people call this the
"To line"). Should those people have all those addresses. How would you feel about your
home address being mailed out to a whole lot of people, even if they are friends. What
about it going to someone who could have a grudge against you, or something more casual?
FIND OUT WHAT THE Bcc: field is for.
VIRUSES:
They propagate by finding addresses in all sorts of places on your computer and mailing
themselves to those addresses. But you should be OK. You have anti-virus software. Do you
know how it's supposed to pick up new viruses?
How do you feel now about sending addresses to people who don't need to know them.
BEING ATTACKED:
Do you think your computer won't be attacked? See Steve Gibson's
"Shields-Up" site.
He's a software engineer. That's how he makes his money. Security
advice? That's for free. People getting at us isn't right and it's not right to make
money from our vulnerabilities, if you don't have to. He doesn't supply anti-virus or other
big software. Most of what you need is simple education. He also has some cunning little tools
you can use. So have a look at his site.