October is National Cyber Security Month.
Jefferson County has partnered with the Golden, Lakewood, Westminster, and Wheatridge to develop 5 articles, one for each week this month, on what we think are the top things you should know about cybersecurity.
Email security is not a single activity that happens or gets done. Email security requires multiple layers of protection including people, processes and technology. In this brief article, we focus on 3 steps you can take to help you protect yourself.
- Use Strong passwords/passphrases – check out this article Am I Using a Good Password
- Use Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) – check out articles #3,4 and 5 here for more on Configuring MFA.
- Be aware scammers are interested in you. Email is an inexpensive way for them to target you. In addition to the recommendations below, check out this article on Sophisticated Phishing Emails and Why They’ll Trick You to see examples and learn how you can avoid being tricked.
- To identify potentially malicious emails, ask these questions of every email if the email is asking to you do something like click a link, open an attachment or respond with sensitive information. If you answer yes to any of these, be cautious, consider deleting the email or contact the sender by another means:
- Is this an unexpected communication from this person/company?
- Is this too good to be true?
- Is there a sense of urgency or threatening language in the email?
- Are there spelling or grammar mistakes?
- If the email is from someone you know, does the tone of the message sound unusual compared to what you’re used to?
- To protect yourself from potentially malicious emails, consider taking these actions:
- Hover but don’t click on links – it is generally safe to open an email.
- Look at the email but don’t open attachments– it is generally safe to open an email.
- Report malicious work emails to your company’s help desk.
- Mark unsolicited emails as spam or junk instead of unsubscribing.
You can find more information on Secure Jeffco