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EMAIL SECURITY
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| Q: What is spam? |
| Q: How do I report spam? |
| Q: What are blacklists? |
| Q: How does COGECO protect me from spam? |
| Q: What is Phishing? |
| Q: How can I tell that an e-mail really came from COGECO as opposed to
being a "phishing" incident? |
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Q: What is Spam?
A: Spam, also
called UCE (Unsolicited Commercial E-mail), is unwanted junk e-mail. Spam is
used by advertisers as e-mail is very inexpensiveto send and therefore becomes
very worthwhile for them, even if only a few people respond out of the millions
targeted.
Postini ( http://www.postini.com/) recently stated that
over 79% of e-mail worldwide is unwanted and unsolicited spam. The Radicati
Group estimated that spam cost business $20.5 billion US in
2003.
Broadbandreports.com offers an excellent overview of spam at http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/spam
This overview
will answer questions such as:
- Why you are getting e-mail from people you don't
know?
- Why you are receiving e-mail that is not
addressed to you?
- What to do about spam?
- How to stop spam?
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Q:
How do I report
spam?
A:
While spam filtering software and services assist in
reducing the spam showing up in your Inbox, it unfortunately does not really
help cease the overall volume and the associated costs. Most often spam is
routed through compromised machines. Reporting such incidents to the proper
provider will help them alert their customer and have the compromise cleaned up
so that they are no longer available to spammers.
Most providers require
the e-mail headers in order to further investigate and/or take action. For
information on how to extract e-mail headers from common e-mail clients and
report them, see http://www.cogeco.ca/fr/faq_email_security_o.html
Also
note that there are several automated reporting tools such as Spamcop at http://www.spamcop.net/ that aggregate reports and send them to the
proper provider.
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Q:
What are
blacklists?
A:
Generally, a blacklist is a list of people or e-mail
servers that are suspected or confirmed sources of spam and are being boycotted
or otherwise penalized. Blacklisted e-mail addresses and e-mail servers are
blocked from sending e-mail to anyone who uses or subscribes to the blacklist.
COGECO does not maintain any blacklists, but subscribes to several respected
third party blacklists.
In order to get removed from these lists, the
mail administrator of the blocked server must work with the organization that
maintains the blacklist.
NOTE: COGECO cannot remove any server from any
blacklist.
Once the mail server is removed from the blacklist(s), it is
listed with the server it will be able to send e-mail to the COGECO domain (ie:
@cogeco.ca) again.
For more information and to validate whether an e-mail
address is causing problems, input the problematic mail server IP address into
the following link and follow the instructions: http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/ip4r.ch?ip=127.0.0.1
If you have any additional questions we will be happy to
assist you, however please include a copy of the message the sender is receiving
so that we may better investigate. Contact us at security@cogeco.net
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Q:
How does COGECO protect me
from spam?
A:
COGECO aims to reduce the amount of spam that makes its
way in your Inbox by using several respected third party blacklists and
custom-built filters that reject common virus subject lines and attachments.
Sometimes these will block legitimate e-mail. If you find that you are unable to
send or receive a legitimate e-mail, try rewording the subject line or zipping
the attachment with a utility such as Winzip. When you resend the e-mail it
should pass through our filters without a problem.
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Q:
What is
Phishing?
A:
Phishing attacks 'spoofed' e-mails and fraudulent Websites
designed to trick individuals into divulging sensitive data such as credit card
numbers, account usernames, passwords, etc. These have become quite popular with
organized crime groups who use these tactics to carry out identity theft.
You
should always be wary of any e-mail that requests personal or confidential information or
username and/or passwords. Often these e-mails appear quite real and the
Websites they link to are very good copies of the actual ones. So if you are in
doubt it is important to confirm these requests with the appropriate banking
institution, online auction sites, etc. by telephone (do not use any phone
numbers in the e-mail). Use copies of old bills or directory listings to ensure
you are contacting a legitimate representative.
If in doubt, call the
company and remember, IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY
IS.
For more about Phishing, visit http://www.antiphishing.org/
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Q:
How can I tell that the
e-mail came from COGECO as opposed to being a "Phishing"
incident?
A:
If you want to confirm the authenticity of any
communication to or from COGECO, please contact us directly at
1-888-558-2233.
PLEASE NOTE THAT COGECO WILL NEVER REQUEST YOUR PASSWORD
OR OTHER PERSONAL/CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION VIA E-MAIL.
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