Email is an excellent communication tool. However, certain things should never be communicated via email due to security risks.
Let’s go through a list of such things. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
What Should Never Appear in Your Inbox?
Passwords/Other Authentication Credentials
The advice is simple: don’t share your credentials through email. While email is relatively safe, and you can delete messages on your end, there’s no way to ensure the message is deleted properly by the recipient or that they protect the data adequately. Moreover, emails can be hijacked if either account is compromised, and you won’t know it until it’s too late.
Payment Card Numbers and Financial Details
Similarly, avoid sharing any payment or card details via email. No matter how careful you are with removing sensitive information from your email, it depends on how diligent the recipient is with your data security. Unfortunately, you can’t assume they will respect it as they should.
Documents Under Attorney-Client Privilege
Are you seeing a pattern?
Privileged information should never be sent through email because, again, you cannot guarantee that someone without the necessary privilege won’t view it. These documents need to be handled far more carefully than any email platform can provide.
Social Security Numbers
Most of us know how crucial it is to keep a Social Security number secure due to the amount of official business it’s used for. However, many people don’t think twice before sending this critical number via email—a method that is not secure enough for all the reasons already discussed. Sadly, this risk is often overlooked, and email security is overestimated.
Financial Account Numbers
This is very similar to the payment card situation mentioned earlier, except that access to a financial account allows someone to take your funds and disappear with their prize. Therefore, sharing financial information like account numbers via email is also unwise. If you must, ensure that any message containing such information is encrypted first.
Protected Health Information
Protected health information is extremely personal and private. Not only can it reveal intimate details, but it can also be used to a cybercriminal’s advantage in numerous ways, potentially even interfering with medical care.
State ID Numbers
State employer ID numbers (state EINs) are used to identify businesses for tax purposes and other government interactions. Protecting this number is crucial for your business, as scammers could use it to pose as a representative and cause headaches and confusion. Cybercriminals could steal tax returns due to your business, order goods in your name, or apply for unwanted loans that you’d be liable for.
Long story short: don’t send these numbers through email.
Driver’s License Numbers
If a cybercriminal obtains a driver’s license number via email, they gain a key tool for committing various crimes, including opening financial accounts, filing for benefits, and running other scams in the victim’s name. The potential consequences far outweigh any convenience.
Passport Numbers
Similar to a driver’s license number, a passport number in the wrong hands can be used for numerous criminal activities, including opening lines of credit, claiming government benefits, and more. Protecting this number is crucial, and sharing it through email is not the way to do so.
It is Important to Be Vigilant When Composing an Email
Don’t let your primary mode of business communication expose your business to risks. Quikteks can help secure your business email. Call us at (973) 882-4644 to learn more.