Safely Open Suspect Email With This Tip

by | Jul 5, 2016 | Useful Tech Tips

Here’s a quick tip for securely opening email from unknown senders. I’m sure this has happened to you, you get an email from someone, maybe it has an attachment, but you don’t know the sender. You don’t want to open the email on your computer because it may have a virus or malware attached. Something we do as security minded IT  techs is open unknown email and/or attachment on our mobile devices. This is of course after all our email is secured through a spam filter.

Mostly all viruses and malware target Windows computers. In this way you can open an email and even an attachment may it be a word doc or zipped file as long as you have the appropriate viewer installed on your mobile device. If you open the file and get an error or a garbled word doc, you know the file was either corrupt or something nasty. We recommend deleting it immediately.

Keep in mind that there is a small number of malware produced to affect iPhone & Android devices, but they are not common from our experience. With this method you should be able to double-check all questionable emails in no time flat. Please keep in mind that this should not take the place of a proper spam filter service.

Ross B. Siroti

As CEO of Rekall Technologies, I’ve been helping small business owners simplify their technology since 2011. Over the years, I’ve seen firsthand how IT becomes frustrating, time-consuming, and a constant distraction from running a business. That experience is what drove me to build Rekall differently. I didn’t want clients adjusting their businesses to fit their IT—I built services that adapt to how real businesses actually operate. My philosophy is simple: technology should be secure, stable, and effectively invisible. When IT is done right, it stays out of the way and gives you the freedom to focus on your clients, your team, and growing your business with confidence.