99 Email Security and Productivity Tips

[piccolomondo]

IT Security is running a great article called Hacking Email: 99 Email Security and Productivity Tips. It's a guide that covers a lot of ground, from etiquette and communicating effectively to attachments, filtering, and making backups.

Here are a few of my favorites that I wish everyone followed:

10. Don't use email when you are angry. This is a tip from Joan Tunsall's Better, Faster Email (non-affiliate Amazon link). While most of the time email does not convey your emotions, particularly humor, it somehow seems to transmit anger - even when you don't intend it to come through.

11. Get clarification. If someone sends you an email that upsets you, make sure you haven't misunderstood. As mentioned previously, emotion and tone do not always carry over well in email. Instead of responding angrily, in your response, quote the portion of text that you are unsure of and ask the sender to clarify. Indicate what you think it means, if you like, then ask if you've misunderstood.

45. Be specific with email titles. An email's subject line is what enables its recipient(s) to appropriately handle it. The famed 'Re:' standing alone on a subject field is either spam, or a response to one of your less-informative titles. Specificity not only facilitates easy filing, but makes locating a given email in your sent box months after the fact (when you need to prove something, or again find that bon mot) a heckuva lot less time-consuming.

58. Use Text/ RTF format instead of DOC files. Microsoft's Word files (.doc format) are susceptible to some macro viruses. If you must send a document and cannot use one of the options above, copy your document to RTF (Rich Text Format) first, then email that as an attachment. Even if you don't have a virus on your computer, your colleague may. If they receive an RTF file, then there is less chance they will respond with a DOC file. (MS Word let's you work with RTF files as you would a DOC file.) It is also okay to send .txt (raw text), .pdf, and image files. Bad to send: any .EXE or other executable file. Possibly bad: .doc or .xls (Microsoft Excel spreadsheet) files..

60. Defer opening attachments. Don't rush to open an attachment just because it appears to have come from someone you know. If you receive an attachment that you are not expecting, don't open it. At least, first read the email and make sure that the attachment is most likely legitimate. If you're still not sure, call/ VoIP/ email/ or IM the sender to be sure. If the sender's computer has a virus, it may be attaching trojans to all outgoing emails from them.

61. Know what not to open. Opening spam can direct floods of it to your inbox, multiplying the time you're chained to email by an order of magnitude...

78. Rule 1 of email privacy: there is no true privacy. Keep that in mind, and write your emails accordingly.

[piccolomondo]

Buried Under eMail

The DownloadSquad Team talk to productivity expert Matthew Cornell about the Five D's (Do, Delete, Delegate, Defer and Deposit).
Also, they take a look at five email add-ons and the DOs and DON'Ts of email.