Emails… Talk to family and friends about them…

How many emails do you get every day? Or how many email addresses do you have? I have multiple email addresses, and even though I try to limit the number of emails received by unsubscribing to newsletters the number is high.

But what is it that I want you to talk to people about? Basically, it is to be careful. Most attacks start with an email, and this can happen both in private and at work. Will these tips help? I guess not on all, but on the generic spam/phishing emails, it will help.

Please get them to check this if you receive an email(Yes on all of them)

  • Did you expect the email?
    If not why are you getting this email?
  • Do you know the person/company sending it?
    If not why are you getting this email?
  • Are there attachments? If so, what type?
    Always be careful with attachments, don’t download or open them if you don’t expect them or need them.
  • Are there any links? Do they go to legitimate domains?
    Don’t click on links, you can hover your mouse above them to see where they will take you. If there is a link you should not click it, but open a window in your browser and write manually where you want to go(if it is from your bank or somewhere else, visit the site the way you use to).
  • Does the from email address look valid?
    It is easy to fake a from address. But if the name says john doe, and the email address is jane.doe@something.com something is fishy.
  • Is the text/offer too good to be true?
    No one is offering you money, bitcoin or gold!
  • Does the text/offer try to get you to do something in a hurry?
    When doing something quick, it is easier to make bad decisions

I know there is a lot of technical stuff that can be used and is used to help us with this. You can look at the headers, stuff like spf, dkim, dmarc, etc. But for the normal not tech-savvy person I would recommend the steps above.

If you have other tips please comment below.

Spark Email App

Spark

I just changed my domain provider and email hosting. After taking backup of all my old emails it felt great to start over with an empty inbox.

After doing some research I found Spark, an email client for iPhone(and soon Windows hopefully) made by a Ukraine company.
It’s fast, has a lot of great features, and supports most email providers.

My plan and goal are to keep my inbox as empty as it can be, only emails that I’m supposed to do something with should be there. Everything else should be archived or deleted. At the same time, I will unsubscribe to most of the spam/newsletter/commercial emails to help me with the empty inbox dream.