The most important address field - the subject line - A Must Read!

The subject field in email

        Besides your name and company, this will be the first item a message reader will see. Therefore, this should never be blank. The action of not having a subject has only negative connotations. The least of these is that the author was lazy or neglectful. The worst of these is that the message is a possible spam (at least to the spam software). Either way, the initial reaction to any email omitting a subject will be negative. If it is indeed viewed this way, then the odds of the message being read by a first-time recipient surely decrease dramatically. If the message is important, such as a résumé, introduction, or emergency, the negative implications to the sender may be quite significant. So, always include a subject description. Provide proper punctuation but do not include a period at the end.

        Even when there is a subject description, it may not be adequate, appropriate, or accurate to the content of the message itself. Too short of a subject, such as “info,” can also discourage someone from opening and reading the message. Conversely, a long email subject line might have a negative effect either for lack of interest (because of the way it is described), lack of clarity or because it gives away too much of the content. As a rule, it is best to restrict the subject description from two or three to ten words. Insure that a subject line is not the whole message with blank text in the email body. Some find it chic to split a message that begins in the subject line and continues into the text itself. This does not accomplish anything and as often as not, it may be lost (or misunderstood) in the reader’s transition from reading the subject line to opening the text itself.

        In entering the subject-line content, it is best to accurately repeat content as well as present a bridge to something important to the recipient such as “Schedule of your classes,” or “Recap of our meeting today.” Leave it to the body of text to explain attachments or provide expanded details. This has many effects (implications) on not only generating interest but also causing a rejection or interest setting a positive or negative tone.

Happy good Netiquette emailing!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you found value in this blog, please reference it in your social media network!

We will be publishing a book on Netiquette shortly entitled "NetiquetteIQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". Also there will be an email "IQ" test on our website:

 www.netiquetteiq.com

There will soon be discount coupons available on the website. There is no obligation and the savings will be up to 50%. Keep checking for its opening! If you wish to have your name put on the book /product waiting list, please send an email while the site is under construction to:

paul@netiquetteiq.com


Paul Babicki
paul@netiquetteiq.com
www.netiquetteiq.com - under construction - check often for its opening

Why Email Security is Still Important - A guest post!

Our blog today will feature our first guest post author! He is Andrew S. Baker, an accomplished and skilled Security and Network engineer. He has a successful practice and can be reached though comments on this blog page or his XeeMe account, also listed here.

Why Email Security is Still Important

by Andrew S. Baker – http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker

Over the past decade, email has been steadily diminishing as the primary means of personal communication.  Even within corporations, email has been losing its status as the primary vehicle for internal and external communications for the past five years or so.  But it is not dead yet – not by a longshot.

Not only do a significant number of business and technology processes still rely on email today, but it is one of the preferred mechanisms for attackers who are looking to spread malware across a corporation or gain a foothold within an organization.  Spear phishing attacks continue to rise each year, even sophisticated tech savvy Fortune 100 organizations have been victimized recently.

A layered security approach to email protection is well recommended, and the key locations for adding security checkpoints are the corporate network perimeter, the mail server, and the hosts that send mail.  Beyond the technology, employees need to understand at a high level how email attacks can occur, and what they can do to minimize the risk of opening a malware message.

Email attacks are getting more and more sophisticated every year.  Still, there are mistakes that malware writers often make that can help you detect suspicious emails:

n  Malware messages often have unprofessional subjects like “Check this out” or “take a look at this!”

n  Poor grammar has been a hallmark of malware in the past, although things have been improving significantly in just the past year.

n  Malware emails often lack formal greetings, contain a high degree of urgency, and offer strange links or attachments.

n  Malware emails are often addressed to multiple people within an enterprise, without using distribution lists and other mechanisms that would be used by internal employees.

n  Trying to take advantage of natural disasters or newsworthy events with some sort of call to action is another common tactic to be found in malware messages.

 

Consider the following as you write your own messages, so that you can help your colleagues more easily detect malware messages.

n  In your messages, resist the urge to be totally informal in your style, especially when links or attachments are going to be involved.  

n  If you plan to send an uncharacteristic message to colleagues, be sure to give them a heads up in some other fashion – possibly an earlier email.  

n  Use meaningful subjects in your message so that the content is easier to discern.

n  Use a spell/grammar checker to minimize errors in your communication.

n  Minimize the use of links, images, and attachments in your messages, so that they do not get flagged as SPAM or make colleagues in other organizations suspicious.

 

We are going to have to rely on email for quite some time, and it behooves us all to practice good email creation so that the malware writers have a harder time using email successfully.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________

 

 

If you found value in this blog, please reference it in your social media network!

There will soon be discount coupons available on the website. There is no obligation and the savings will be up to 50%. Keep checking for its opening! If you wish to have your name put on the book /product waiting list, please send an email to:

paul@netiquetteiq.com


Paul Babicki
paul@netiquetteiq.com
www.netiquetteiq.com - under construction - check often for its opening

 

Andrew S. Baker is an IT Operations and Information Security consultant. See Andrew's complete social presence at XeeMe.com\AndrewBaker