In an age of rampant cyber threats, it’s essential to remember one fundamental rule of internet safety: Never open an email attachment unless you’re certain it’s free from corruption or infection. Here are several preventative measures you can take to shield yourself from falling prey to such deceptive pitfalls.
Initial caution revolves around unexpected or unsolicited attachments, especially those from unfamiliar contacts. Malware could potentially be launched onto your device by simply clicking on a corrupted attachment. This may present in various forms – an image, video, text file, or spreadsheet – posing a risk to the integrity of your data.
Before diving into an attachment, it’s crucial to validate its safety. Begin with verifying the sender’s identity, ensuring their email address is legitimate. Ignoring attachments flagged as spam and employing antivirus software for scrutinizing every file in your inbox are also strongly advised.
Once you have confidently verified the file’s safety, opening files in universally accepted formats like JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIF, MPEG, MP3, MP4, etc. is typically secure. Conversely, risky formats such as ZIP, RAR, HTML, and especially EXE, designed to execute a computer program, should be avoided.
In the unfortunate event of clicking on a harmful attachment, promptly disconnect from the local network. Swiftly change your email password, activate multifactor authentication, and perform a comprehensive antivirus scan of your device.
This news story is based on an article originally published on malaymail.com.
