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How to Protect Yourself from Spyware and Viruses, Part 3
By admin | January 31, 2008
We’ve already explored securing your system and browsing safely, now we’ll explore a few ways to keep your E-Mail safe from assault. Email is one of the most vulnerable access points in to your system because even e-mail from trusted people can contain malicious payloads. After all, not everyone is as safety conscious as you are. So to help navigate the e-mail minefield we’re going to look at two separate strategies.
The first strategy is to use an online mail service like Google Mail, this is by far the easiest way to do things and has been my preferred method for years. It puts the burden for spam blocking and virus cleaning onto a huge company with almost limitless resources. They tend to do a pretty fine job of it.
However if you’re using your ISP’s POP mail, usually something like yourname@bellsouth.net, and don’t want to give that up I recommend using Mailwasher to block spam. There is a terrific tutorial over on their site for using Mailwasher, so I won’t try to improve on that. You’ve already installed AVG Antivirus which will scan your incoming and outgoing mail for viruses, so with these two items in place you are about as well protected as software can make you. The rest is up to you.
Now we go over a few rules to keep you from betraying your system into enemy hands. First, do not open attachments from people you don’t know no matter how enticing it might sound. Second, do not open “free” screen savers, “free” games, or any other “neat” thing that someone forwards you. The final rule is to never respond to, or click any link in a spam email that you do receive. These rules combined with a Google Mail account or Mailwasher and AVG will keep you safe from any email assault. Remember to read Part One and Part Two if you haven’t already, and as always we appreciate it when you
.Topics: anti-spyware, anti-virus, e-mail, january, mailwasher, protect pc, protection, secure pc, spam, spyware, virus |
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