Your Daily Computer Security Tips

I have often mentioned how email is not secure, or private. Once you hit that Send button, it is out of your control. It can be viewed or copied by others, as it wends its way along the Internet. The recipient can forward it to anyone he pleases without your permission, or do whatever she wants with it.

Many businesses keep email records almost permanently. That is worth remembering, before you send the message. So what can you do, if you have to send important or sensitive information? Well, there are web sites available that will largely solve this problem.

Will Self-Destruct at http://www.willselfdestruct.com/secure/submit
will, as the name implies, blow up your email after a certain amount of viewing time, or number of days, or after a preset number of views. You set the options.

The way it works is, your message is posted on their secure web page. The recipient receives the link to the page, and goes to read the message. Then the email deletes itself, based on the rules you have set. (This site is currently for sale, but it is still up and running as I write this.)

This or similar programs allow you to send messages more or less anonymously. Just remember that anyone can be traced, if you wanted to put in enough time and effort or if the police or authorities are involved.

Finally, your recipient could easily copy and paste your email, or if that is disabled, take a screenshot, thereby making himself a copy. Still, this is a useful service you may want to use occasionally, when you have to send confidential data.

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here:
=> http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

You may include these Tips in your web sites and publications provided they remain unchanged and include the above paragraph, with the author’s name and web site.