Ten Tips for Safer Emails

1. Don't reply to ANY unsolicited emails. Even unsubscribe will alert the senders that your email address is being used.

2. Use your messaging software's filtering tools to reject mail from your frequent spammers' email addresses or with certain words (sex, for example) in the subject line.

3. Find out if your ISP has a spam blocking service. If not, sign up for a third party spam blocking service such as Brightmail (www.brightmail.com).

4. Contact the large directory services such as Bigfoot, Infospace, Switchboard, Yahoo People Search, and whowhere, to tell them you don't want to be listed.

5. Encrypt and digitally sign all your sensitive email messages. If your messaging software doesn't support robust encryption, download PGP Freeware encryption software (http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html) and use that.

6. Use WinZip (www.winzip.com) software to compress and password protect your attachments.

7. To avoid cookies sent via email, use email client software, such as Eudora Pro, that lets you shut off its automatic Web Browser rendering engine.

8. Don't read email on a machine that doesn't belong to you or someone you trust. If you use a browser to read email on someone else's machine, use the browser's Clear History tool when you finish to prevent subsequent users from getting into your mailbox.

9. Don't send sensitive personal messages on your work machine.

10. Keep your antivirus software updated at all times.