Do you access your email via Wi-Fi? Most of us do.
You probably also use WPA2 as the safety protocol for your Wi-Fi network(s) because it’s the industry standard.
We all think that reading and sending email via Wi-Fi is generally safe and secure, but the recent KRACK attacks will give you something new to think about. Hackers can now exploit a weakness in WPA2 to read email that we thought was safe. They can also steal personal information that is in those emails. (For more information about the KRACK attacks, read the Newsweek article here and a more technical description in Mathy Vanhoef’s blog post here.)
There are some simple things you can do to keep your personal and work email accounts as safe as possible. Check out our Best Practices for Personal Email Security, which includes a 14-step checklist, to learn easy tips and tricks to protect yourself from three of the most common and real threats:
- Viruses & Malware
- Non-Secure Communications
- Data Loss & Leakage
Also check out XMission’s blog Best Practices for Zimbra Email Security. This post shares some great ideas for both end users and email admins, including things like passphrases instead of passwords and Secrets, a self-destructing note technology provided by Xmission.
Very informative article Gayle. Didn’t knew person email could led to such threats. I will follow up the reference you’ve provided. Thanks a lot for sharing.
David
Useful article! Everyone must protect their email addresses to prevent these threats.