Risks to e-mail

There are several inherent risks in the way e-mail functions. When you send e-mail to a recipient, it travels to an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server either directly (if you’re using an e-mail client such as Outlook) or via a Web server (if you’re using Web-based mail, such as Hotmail). The recipient will receive your e-mail directly from the SMTP server or via a Web server.
During this journey, any unauthorized person can access your messages by exploiting vulnerabilities on the SMTP or Web servers. Your messages can be read and copied by anyone who has access to the computers and networks through which your messages travel. In fact, authorized system administrators on the SMTP servers can also read, copy, save, delete, and modify your messages before sending them on.
During this ‘eavesdropping’, it may be possible to gain access to your usernames and passwords. The mischief-monger can then wreak havoc by sending messages on your behalf. You may also receive messages from known e-mail IDs that have been created and sent by unauthorized users; such messages usually contain viruses, Trojans or ask you to reply to the message with sensitive personal information, such as bank-account or credit-card details.
What’s more, mail backups on SMTP servers store the e-mail in plain text; sometimes, messages that you sent or received years ago are easily available on these backups, long after you have deleted them.
The issues with e-mail are, therefore, manifold - the sender’s e-mail ID may be stolen and misused, without the recipient knowing about it; messages may be intercepted; or messages may be stored such that their content is easily accessible.
Encryption, digital signatures, and digital certificates are some ways of securing e-mail from these threats.

Ref:India syndicate

Encrypting e-mail

Encryption means scrambling the text of your message to a seemingly gibberish combination of letters and numbers, so that anyone who reads it en route can make no sense of it. Only the recipient is able to decrypt the message.
Using public keys is the most common form of encryption. This requires the use of two keys - a public key and a private key. The private key resides on your computer and you share the public key with the recipients to which you wish to send encrypted messages. When you wish to send the message, you encrypt it with the public key. On the other end, the recipient needs its own private key and your public key to decrypt the message. Since the message is decrypted using your public key, it proves that you sent the message. You can encrypt messages as well as attachments.
If you use Outlook as your e-mail client, encryption is built into it via digital IDs, which enable you to encrypt your message and digitally sign it as well. You can also use the popular public-key encryption system, PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), with Outlook itself and with other e-mail clients. This utility is available as freeware on Source: www.pgpi.org.

Email won’t go if the destination is over 500 miles

Imagine yourself as a system administrator for a moment and you get a weird call from a user saying that any email that he sends would fail if the destination point is over 500 miles. You'll choke for a moment and you ll call that guy Insane. E-Mails don't have distance or stamps. It goes to whomever it needs to, wherever he is on the face of the earth.

I read a blog of a system admin who went through a smiliar situation and how he ironed out the issue. It definitely wasn't the users fault. At times all it requires to catch serious bugs is a totally new perspective!!

Read more here: http://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html?test

Secret Gmail delete keyboard shortcut!!!

If you are reading a message in GMail, press the # key (Shift+3) and that message will instantly move to Trash. Alternatively, select one or more email messages in the GMail list view, press the same # hash key and all the selected GMail conversations will be deleted in one batch.
you have to have the Shortcuts enabled in your Settings before you try this, or it won’t work.

Source: http://www.irintech.com/x1/blogarchive.php?id=856

Send Email in Outlook without Using Mouse!!!

To send an email without ever taking your hands off of the keyboard, follow these simple steps:

1.Use Alt+Tab to switch to Outlook.
2.If you’re looking at anything other than one of your mail folders (like your Calendar or Contacts), hit Ctrl+Shift+M to open a new mail message, otherwise just hit Ctrl+N.
3.You should now be looking at a blank email, with your cursor placed in the To: field. Type the recipients name (and if Outlook is connected to Microsoft Exchange Server and you’re emailing somebody in your organization, you can type their name and hit Ctrl+K, which will verify their address for you).
4.Use the TAB key to navigate between the CC:, BCC: and Subject fields, filling in as necessary. 5.Hit TAB to enter the main text area of the email, type the body of your message.
6.Invoke the SpellCheck utility using the F7 key. Use the TAB key to navigate, making changes as needed.
7.Once you’re ready to send, hit Ctrl+Enter.
8.Bask in the knowledge that you’ve just sent an email and your mouse is getting dusty!
Pretty simple, right? This process is a little weird at first (especially if you want to attach files, etc. - use Alt+I, F to do that), but once you’ve done it a few times, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it!

Source:http://blog.crankingwidgets.com/2007/01/30/no-mouse-required-how-to-create-and-send-an-email-in-outlook-using-only-your-keyboard/

Recalling the Message From Sent Items !!!

For Outlook 2003:
1. Go to the Sent Items folder.
2. Find the message you want recalled and double-click it.
3. Go to the Actions menu and select Recall This Message.
4. To recall the message:
Select Delete unread copies of this message. (Note: the recipient needs to have Outlook opened for the message to be deleted)
To replace the message:
Select Delete unread copies and replace with a new message, click OK, and type your new message.
To be notified about the success of the recall or replacement:
Check the Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient check box.
5. Click OK.


UPDATE: How To Recall a Sent Message in Outlook 2007:
1. Click on Sent Items.
2. Find the message you want recalled and double-click it to open.
3. Go to the Actions menu -> other Actionh and select Recall This Message.

Watch YouTube Videos in Gmail Chats

As if your friends linking you to YouTube videos isn’t distracting enough … now you can actually watch the videos from inside of Gmail chats.

When someone sends you a YouTube link, you’ll now get a thumbnail preview of the video. Click play and another box will open up inside of Gmail that streams it. For additional options like full screen mode, embedding, or adding the video to your favorites, you’ll still need to click over to YouTube.

Simple e-Mail Etiquette

• Be concise and to the point
• Answer all questions, and pre-empt further questions
• Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation
• Use templates for frequently used responses
• Do not attach unnecessary files
• Use proper structure & layout
• Do not overuse the high priority option
• Do not write in CAPITALS
• Don't leave out the message thread
• Read the email twice before you send it
• Use a meaningful subject
• Use Active Voice instead of Passive Voice
• Avoid long sentences.

Our Official Email Abbreviations

In our official mails, nowadays we have a habit of using the abbreviations like FYI, FYIP, PFA or EOD in body of mail and NNTO or EOM in a subject line etc. Most of us when sending such mails assume that the person reading it is aware of these abbreviations. It need not be the case.

One of the person near my desk in office asked me “I am getting a lot of mails from the others with PFA in the top of the mail. Do you know what that means?” I told him it means “Please Find Attached”.

The idea of communication is to make the other person understand what you are thinking/saying and if that very purpose is not meet then why use it. Something that is common/known to you might not be known to the others, so there can be abbreviations which only a certain set of people are aware of. Even worse it can mean something very different in another country or culture. But if you have the habit of using it often then it is better to expand it in the first mail to a new person and then use the abbreviation in the subsequent mails. A much better suggestion is to refrain from using uncommon abbreviations in business emails.

P.S: FYI - For Your Information, FYIP - For Your Information Please.

This reminds me of another incident at the client place, other than India. I referred to the number 100,000 as 1 Lakh while speaking to them. The client did not understand it and I repeating it did not serve any purpose. Then finally I had to say it as one hundred thousand. Until then, I did not realize that the term lakh is predominantly used only in Asian countries like Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Pakistan.

Even i faced same kind of experience with one of the mail with no body(message) but subject as:
Please send your details soon <>

By the time i received this mail, i was aware of the only term EOD (End Of Day). Can u expect what assumption i have made for the term <> in subject line to be ?- as End of Month ... instead of End of Mail. lol

And about other abbreviations:
NNTO - No Need To Open
NNTOM - No Need To Open Mail
these are place in subject line only.