Web & E-Mail Best Practices
OIT does as much as it can do legally to block Virus-infected downloads/e-mail and spam, but it is up to you to exercise good practices when surfing the web and reading e-mail.
Web Best Practices
- Protect your personal information
If you're asked for your personal information – your name, email or home address, phone number, account numbers, or Social Security number – learn how it's going to be used, and how it will be protected, before you share it.
- File-sharing Programs
File-sharing can give people access to a wealth of information, including music, games, and software. How does it work? You download special software that connects your computer to an informal network of other computers running the same software. Millions of users could be connected to each other through this software at one time. Often the software is free and easily accessible.
But file-sharing can have a number of risks. If you don't check the proper settings, you could allow access not just to the files you intend to share, but also to other information on your hard drive, like your tax returns, email messages, medical records, photos, or other personal documents.
- Downloading Free Software
Take the time to read the End User License Agreement to be sure that you're sharing files legally and that you understand the potentially high risk of any free downloads. For example, some license agreements include an agreement to allow spyware to be installed on your machine, including pornography labeled as something else.
- Do not download Active X controls that some webpages prompt you to unless you explicitly trust the site.
E-mail Best Practices
- Do not open e-mail attachments unless you are expecting a message with an attachment.
- Do not supply your e-mail address when filling out web forms unless you trust the site. Instead, use a secondary e-mail address from a free e-mail site such as Hotmail or Yahoo, instead.
- Do not answer spam, not even to use the "unsubscribe" feature that some spam mail offers. By answering, the spammers know that your e-mail address is valid, thus increasing the amount of spam you receive at that address.
- Do not click web links in e-mail messages because they may take you to fraudulent copies of well-known web sites.