email

More than 700 million email addresses and passwords have been leaked online. While many are bogus, enough appear to be genuine that security experts have advised users to change their email passwords. The collection of account details does not ... appear to have been used for identity theft or other fraud. Instead, the collection has been marketed as a way to send spam messages. The idea is that spammers can login to the compromised accounts in order to send their unsolicited emails. This effectively flies under the spam radar, as most spam comes from IP addresses without any reputation. In this ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader "Sundeep" writes: " Dear Dennis, I am using Windows 10 and my email is always open and accessible. I want to be able to log out of my emails so no one else can see them. How can I make it so that my email is kept private, so no ... one else can see it on my computer when I'm away from the machine? " My response: If you don't want your emails accessible whenever you are signed in, there are a few options. Lock the machine or sign out when it is not being used. If you lock the machine, everything on the desktop will remain where it is until you sign back in. If you log out, ... (view more)

Google is to stop scanning Gmail messages for advertising purposes. The move was driven largely by a need to satisfy business customers. The company announced that "Consumer Gmail content will not be used or scanned for any ads personalization after ... this change." A company spokesman said this would bring the consumer service into line with the G Suite service for businesses. Business Users 'Put Off' By Scanning Diane Greene said that although business customers "have never had their messages scanned for use in advertising, many potential customers were nonetheless put ... (view more)

An estimated one million people around the world received a recent phishing email, though it only posed a risk for around an hour before Google stepped in to stop the scam in its tracks. Victims of the scam may have inadvertently given attackers ... control of their email accounts. The attack involved a bogus email claiming that a contact tried to share a document with the recipient using Google Docs. While only a small proportion of people use Google Docs, the attackers appear to have been playing the numbers game. Attackers Accessed Emails and Contacts Unlike most phishing scams, the attackers ... (view more)

The National Security Agency (NSA) is to revise a controversial program that let it read emails from US citizens without a warrant. It also says it will delete many of the messages it collected in this way. The program has been dubbed "Section 702 ... activities", named after the relevant part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Such activities are significant because they are an exception to the general principle that the NSA doesn't carry out surveillance within the US, something that would normally bring constitutional rights to privacy into play. Section 702 allowed ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Marion L. writes: " Dear Dennis, I've been using my Yahoo email with Windows Mail for quite a while, but now it keeps telling me 'Your Yahoo account settings are out of date' near the top of the screen. The options 'Fix Account' ... or 'Dismiss' don't work. If I click 'Fix Account' it says 'Something went wrong. We're sorry but we weren't able to do that. Error code: 80070422'. I cannot send or receive emails using my Yahoo account. Can you please help? " My response: As I mentioned in last week's post, the ' Your account settings are out of date ' is a very generic error ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Marion L. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am using Windows Mail with Windows 10, and all the sudden I have been getting an error that says 'Your Outlook account settings are out of date' near the top of the screen. I have the option to ... 'Fix Account' or 'Dismiss'. If I click the 'Dismiss' option, I can't receive any emails, then within a few minutes I'll receive the same error that 'Your Outlook account settings are out of date'. If I click 'Fix Account' it tells me 'Something went wrong. We're sorry, but we weren't able to do that', and it gives me an error code 0x80070003. I have ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'Rebecca' writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently purchased a tablet with Windows 10 and I have Windows Defender running. My question is whether I need to install any other protection to stop people (hackers) from being able to steal my ... bank details, etc. My dad was recently a victim of this but I don't know how to protect myself. How can I keep my PC secure in 2017? Thank you in advance! " My response: I have been asked this question no less than 100 times in the last 16 years I've been writing articles online - but the truth of the matter is that the answer changes slightly as ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Karin S. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently received a letter in the mail from the government requesting additional information on my account. The letter states that I can mail or fax in my information back to them (they won't ... accept email attachments for some reason). As such, I would prefer to fax the information as that is the fastest method. I would like to know if you can recommend a good, free fax service over the Internet that I can use to send this information? Thanks! " My response: I did a bit of research, and there are two popular websites offering free faxes ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Fran G. writes: " Dear Dennis, Thanks so much for your recent articles on Mozilla Thunderbird. I have a question regarding Thunderbird as well. Whenever I respond to an email from someone, during the composition I usually press ... Enter twice on the keyboard to start a new paragraph. This happens most of the time. However, if I start a new email and then begin a new paragraph, I only need to press Enter once on the keyboard. This is very inconsistent and confusing! Can you explain why this is and/or explain how to fix it so paragraphs are the same all the time? " My response: ... (view more)