Email hacking seems to be picking up, putting you and your computer’s security and well-being at greater risk. To continue our “look before you click” message from last month, here are a few protective reminders.

Above all, use common sense and trust your gut feelings. If something doesn’t seem right, it’s probably not right.

• We’ve seen a lot of reports about messages sent through AOL. They come from hacked email address books and contain either a link or attachment. There is a tipoff: The sender’s address doesn’t look like a normal AOL address. It usually has a double “aol.com” in there.
• Whoever is trying to attack your computer through any email address usually has a subject line such as “hey there check this out” or something similar. Does the person who is supposed to be the sender usually send you something with that kind of subject line?
• Does the person who’s supposed to be the sender normally send you email, or is it from someone you haven’t heard from in a while – quite a long while?
• Are you really expecting something to be delivered by UPS or FedEx? When was the last time the freight carrier – not the merchant – sent you tracking information?

If you click on a website address, open an attachment or even reply to one of these bogus messages, you can open up your computer to malware, a Trojan horse or some other attack that can be an inconvenience at best or a major problem at worst, such as a keystroke logger that can steal your passwords for financial-related sites.

You may not be able to protect yourself against everything out there, but a little common sense can go a long way:

• Look before you click
• Keep your anti-virus and malware/spyware up to date
• Use strong passwords with combinations of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters

If you suspect you have a virus problem, call us – 973-433-6676 – right away. Don’t email us and don’t try to reboot your machine. Just call us, and we’ll take it from there.