The Good

In today's offices e-mail has replaced the telephone as the preferred means of communication in many cases. E-mail has the benefit of being nearly instantaneous, and can provide an electronic "paper trail" that can be used for future reference and can include attachments such as documents, spreadsheets or digital photographs. Not having e-mail is analogous to not having a telephone just a few years ago.

Free e-mail services.

Free e-mail services provided by Hotmail, Yahoo, Google and others certainly have their place in the world. With these services you can create as many accounts as you like. Some times called "Throw away" e-mail accounts because they can be created to allow you provide a valid e-mail account when required for a purchase but can be closed or just ignored once you've completed the transaction (thereby avoiding all the spam that will be directed to your account). With one exception, (Google's g-mail and the Google Desktop services will be discusses in a future article), these services should never be associated with your business however.

Domain names and e-mail accounts

If you're in business you should have a domain name and e-mail accounts that positively reflect your business. You would not use a generic, or some other company's letterhead for written communications. Neither should you use a free e-mail account for your business e-mail services. For a relatively small investment you can have e-mail accounts for you and your employees that proudly announces your company name, industry or product line. If you have a web site that uses the same domain (recommended) then each e-mail address is like an advertisement or invitation to view your site to learn more about your company's product or service. In a future article I'll go into greater detail about the "hows and whys" related to domain names.

E-mail allows you to very quickly send messages that include everything from documents to refrigerator art to anyone, anywhere in the world, and do it postage free; but it is not without it's downsides.

The Bad

E-mail is not always the best or most appropriate means of communications and you should consider the following when choosing whether to e-mail, make a phone call or send a written document via "snail mail".

E-mail is by it's very nature a more informal means of communication. Typically an interoffice message is quickly sent with typos and errors intact. E-mail messages sent to supervisors in your company should always be carefully reviewed for spelling and grammatical errors. Your friends, family or coworkers may not be judging you bases on typos, grammatical or spelling errors but your supervisors may be. E-mail can present other risks of miscommunication as well. Unlike in person or even telephone conversations, e-mail can be more easily misunderstood in situations where inflection, tone of voice or body language would normally punctuate your message. With e-mail, you can't necessarily see or hear any clues about how your messages have been received. It is very easy for someone to "read into" your message. For example the text "That's just great!" can be thrilled, sarcastic, congratulatory or possibly the writer is relived.

E-mail may not be the most appropriate medium for more formal needs however sending a formal document via an attachment with a short message is usually acceptable. The most formal communications or those that require signatures in ink must be sent via postal or express services but can usually be send via e-mail in advance of the hard copy.

Because e-mail requires almost no transit time, is somehow raises expectations for quicker responses and therefore requires nearly immediate acknowledgement. Although you may still need time to research a request, prepare a proposal or send out some literature based on an e-mail request, the requester still expects a nearly instant reply to their inquiry. If you accept e-mail inquiries from prospective clients or customers, then you should be prepared to respond quickly. Fortunately auto responders can automate some of this by sending immediate responses that acknowledge the receipt of the message and indicate an approximate human response time.

Privacy

While on a phone conversation, you voice can be overheard and or recorded. Sending a document via fax usually means it will sit in a fax machine's paper out tray where nearly anyone can read it. So in many respects e-mail is a bit more private than voice or fax communication. However, most employers have policies in place that allow your e-mail messages to be captured, stored and reviewed by company management. To be on the safe side, you should not consider any e-mail send from your employer's computer to be private and you should never send any message that can't stand thorough scrutiny by your supervisors.

The Ugly

Spam

If you use any e-mail service then Spam and virus attacks are not something new to you. The benefits of e-mail certainly have not been lost on marketers. Used properly e-mail is a low cost and effective marketing too. But when used to flood the marketplace with unwanted unsolicited messages then Spam can become a real problem for any e-mail user. Spam can become so burdensome that it can actually reduce the effectiveness of communication by requiring so much time to sort out the important messages from all the junk mail. I recently discovered MyEScan, a great low-cost spam and virus solution that protects your entire network from spam and virus attacks.

Phishing

Criminals impersonate banking, payment processing, eBay and other protected web sites by sending very realistic e-mail messages requesting that request that readers click on a link and log into the web site to verify some bit of data or confirm their identity for some reason. When you click on the link in the message a web site that looks exactly like the actual site is displayed but this site is actually an imposter site and the user name and password information you enter is stored or e-mailed to the criminals who use it to assume your identity on the real site. For example, you may receive an e-mail that appears to be from your bank that insists that your account may have been compromised and asks that you login to confirm that you're the owner of your account. The message will usually contain a threat that, for your protection, the bank will close your account if you do not validate your identity. There will be at least one link in the message that you can click on to get to your bank's security page set up for this purpose. If you click on the link, a very realistic imposter site will be displayed where you'll be asked to log in. If you do, the thieves have access to your bank information and can steal your money and your identity.

If you suspect that you are a target of a phishing message, do not click on any links in the message. If you think there is any chance that the message is valid, then go to your bank's (or other subject's) web site by typing the address in your browser (don't use the e-mail links) and look for information to confirm or refute the e-mail's claims. If you don't see any message, you can usually send a copy of the Phishing message to the site's security team.

Virus attacks and hoaxes

Viruses are bits of malicious computer code that are embedded into all sorts of files that are processed by computers. Computers and networks are attacked by viruses when infected files downloaded or otherwise transferred to a computer then run. A virus can be run by opening the file that contains the virus. Once a virus is in your computer it replicates itself and spreads to other computers by a variety of means. Viruses can destroy computers, remove or alter valuable information and transmit sensitive data to criminals.

Your best protection is a combination of well maintained anti-virus software, a firewall, and internal security measures and policies that prevent the unauthorized download or  installation of software. The most common means of distribution of viruses and infected files is via e-mail. The MyEScan service does a fantastic job of blocking viruses before they get to your network greatly reducing the risk of infection.

Virus hoaxes are messages sent to you by well meaning fiends, relatives or co-workers that warn of dire consequences of a specific virus threat. These hoaxes are not usually dangerous in themselves because they don't contain viruses. They do however, serve to alarm the recipient and dilute the impact of valid virus warning notices distributed by major anti-virus software manufacturers. In rare cases the warning might also include "advice" on removing the supposed virus. The "advice" can instruct the reader to delete their hard drive, damage their system registry or recommend other similar self-destructive activities.

A Solution

Bothered by Spam or concerned about virus risks to your network? Ask about MyEScan spam and virus protection for your network.