Email is today’s essential work tool. It’s hard to imagine life without email. We use it both at work and in our personal lives. However, this fact also poses a threat to us. The number of email-related scams continues to rise, which means that if we don’t take additional steps to secure ourselves, we’ll be at risk. Account takeover can result in the loss of documents, files (especially if the email is connected to a cloud service), and other accounts (attackers can use email to reset passwords on other services). Additionally, large companies offering free email services may read your messages or share them with third parties.
I have prepared a list of 10 actions that are worth taking to better secure your email.
- Do not publicly share your email address: Automated bots scan websites to collect email addresses, which are then targeted with phishing emails.
- Have more than one email address: Consider having separate email addresses for different purposes (e.g., one for online shopping, one for newsletters). If one account is compromised, it won’t cause significant harm.
- Use aliases: Create aliases for your main email address to use for different purposes. Be cautious, though, as aliases can also be used to log in to your account.
- Strong passwords and MFA: Use a long and unique password, and enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for better account security.
- Consider changing your email provider: Services like ProtonMail prioritize data privacy.
- Use your own domain: Having your own domain allows you to switch email providers without losing access.
- Sync emails with a local program: Maintain a local copy of your messages in case your account is compromised.
- Maintain a blacklist of senders: Create a blacklist of domains and senders to save time analyzing malicious messages.
- Avoid sharing sensitive data via email: Don’t send important files through email; use secure methods like Sharepoint with password protection and limited access.
- Disable automatic remote content download – emails may contain content such as images, CSS styles, and trackers. Loading this information reveals your IP address.
What types of email security measures do you use? In your opinion, what additional security measures are worth implementing? Share in the comments.
