When you set up the security systems on your computer, laptop, iPad or smartphone you’ll no doubt use an encrypted password for your internet/Wi-Fi connection, get yourself a well-known anti-virus and firewall program and perhaps a virtual private network. You’ll be all set to go and only time will tell how secure your system really is. If a couple of years pass and you don’t experience any difficulties, you’ll be able to pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing a good job.
But there’s one area of insecurity that many people forget about. Can you guess what it is? Probably not.
Your email can be a rich harvest of information that is better kept away from prying eyes should someone manage to hack your computer. You may have your files secured with a password-protected program such as Folder Lock or AxCrypt or one of many others, but I’ll bet my bottom dollar, your email account data will be sitting in your device totally unprotected.
Am I right?
Some email clients, like Gmail, provide end-to-end encryption so what you send in an email is protected during transit. However, once decrypted at the recipient’s end, it lies unprotected on the recipient’s device and of course your device where it is unencrypted.
Why is this an issue?
It’s only ever an issue if you receive email messages that have passwords, software keys, credit card details, or other details that might benefit a criminal. For example, say you buy a software program. You download it to your computer and receive an email from the seller advising you that your product can be downloaded from a specific link and they provide the key you need to gain access to the software. There could be additional information e.g., the name you use for your PayPal account, your full address, mobile phone number and other data.
The only solution to this seems to be to either print the email and store it offline, print it and store it online in a protected file (like a ‘.zip’ file or PDF the file with password), or to record the information you need and delete the email message.
I use password management software that includes a repository for files that it encrypts and stores away from prying eyes. I put details of keys etc. in there.
It pays to do your homework when it comes to protection. Go to your email account and view your messages. See how many you find that have information that would help a hacker steal your identity, use a software program you’ve paid for, access credit card details you sent to one of your family members or any other data that you might not want to share. Are you horrified by what you found?