EmailCommunicationSafelyIn November 1971, the American programmer Ray Tomlinson sent the first email, ushering in a new age of communication. Today, after more than 50 years, more than 300 billion emails are in circulation around the world every day according to Statista; thus, making emails an indispensable means of communication for marketers. The email heralded in a new age of communication that democratized international communication. Everyone could exchange messages and information worldwide in real-time and virtually free-of-charge, provided they had a computer with a modem.

It was the first step towards the global networking of today's digital world, which makes it cyber criminals’ most attractive target, since email communication is used by everyone for external and internal communication in business. Criminals can read emails, access sensitive data, or falsify content unnoticed and create messages with a false identity.

Of course, security measures such as digital signatures and encryption increase protection against theft and espionage. Unfortunately, they are still not widespread enough.

Therefore, you might be interested in getting the following five short tips on how to make your email traffic safer – even if you think you heard them often enough:

  1. Create a strong password: email accounts should be protected with a particularly strong password, as they usually allow access to other Internet accounts. Keep in mind not to go for short passwords, avoid words from the dictionary, and make use of lower- and upper-case letters, numbers and special characters.
  2. Careful handling of sensitive data: passwords, bank information and similar sensitive data are particularly worth protecting and should not simply be passed on by email, regardless of whether the addressee of the email is known or not.
  3. Check the sender for seriousness: a quick glance at the sender, subject line or email text can reveal whether the content is fraudulent. In case of doubt, the alleged sender should be contacted in another way, for example by messenger or by phone.
  4. Do not open links and attachments from unknown email senders: be careful with all types of email attachments as they can hide malware, and do not open attachments from unknown sources.
  5. Use a spam filter and virus program: to avoid unwanted emails and the execution of malware, spam filters and up-to-date virus scanners should be used.


Stay alert and safe!


By Daniela La Marca