Sep 18 2008
- When creating a free email account it’s OK to lie. Never give your real information to anyone asking for it online unless its required.
- Use a strong password. Find out how long you can make your password, what characters are valid, and use something like KeePass Password Safe to manage your passwords.
- After you create the email account and create a strong password, save the false information you entered in your password manager. That way if you change your password, but don’t save it in your safe, you have the false information you need to reset the password.
- Never use your email account for anything other then public communication. Don’t forget once you hit send, you have no control over what others do with your email.
- Never leave email on the server. Either download it to a computer or delete it. Why would an attacker go after your computer, when they can attack your email. Ever do a search in your mailbox for keywords like “password”, “login”, or other sensitive information? You will be shocked what you might find.
- If you need to send something, that isn’t meant to be public, use encryption. PGP has been mainstream for over a decade. Check out Hushmail if you want free and easy.
- If using web email, disable POP3 and IMAP access. Setup your emails to automatically be forwarded to your main account and auto delete whatever is on the server.
- If you do need POP3 or IMAP, only use if SSL is enabled.
- Test the “forgot password” function for your account. If it seems to easy to reset, it might be easy enough for an attacker. Just ask Gov. Palin…
- Learn to use temporary email addresses. Web sites like 10 Minute Mail can be used for online registration for web services. Do what you can to keep your email address from making the rounds.
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