Keep it safe
The following pages will enable you to use email in a safe and effective manner.
- Emailing personal and confidential information
- Avoiding email viruses
- Managing junk email
- Best practice
Advice
Stop and think before you click - slow down and think before you press the 'Send' button or open an attachment.
Take care with what you write and attach - once you press the send button you can no longer control what happens to your email. Setting up your email with a delayed send can sometimes help.
The autocomplete feature, which suggests names as you start to type in an address field, can become corrupt. Avoid using it for confidential emails and use the University Global Address List or online directory instead.
Email security
Use encrypted attachments to help limit who can read personal data or confidential messages, and communicate the encryption password by a different route eg telephone, text, instant message.
Never respond to phishing emails which ask you to provide passwords or account information. One common method of phishing is a false message saying your mailbox is full. A guide is available below to help you spot these bogus messages. You can also visit the phishing web pages for more information.
Never open an attachment if you are suspicious about the source or contents of an email. Even if you know the sender, think twice before you open zip files, videos and files with strange file names or extensions as they could contain viruses or other malware. Speak to the sender to check that it is a valid email. More detailed information is provided in this section to help manage junk mail and viruses.
Never share your email password and always lock your PC if left unattended, otherwise someone could send emails in your name. For more information see setting up mailbox sharing web pages.
