Email
Etiquette
Web
is full of suckers.
Most
of them pretend to be your Advisor or Saviour.
This
is true with obtaining VISA.
But
they are suckers.
They
are out there to get your money and email and more importantly your
personal details.
They
use your identity to get involved in undesirable activities.
Beside
your government or its stooges are the most untrustworthy.
For
example your Grama Niladari is not innocent.
He/She
provides your information (sometimes incorrect) to the politicos and
often leave important documents lying around.
Not
in a safe or safe place.
In
that way I am against this new trend in e-governace and e-commerce.
They
provide these information to third parties and there are no
legislation in this country to prevent them doing so.
Most
of is done under the name of prevention of terrorism but now used for
political mileage.
The
police is not selective but they are corrupt.
They
have no mechanism to anticipate and prevent disaster.
They
are always after the fact and slow to respond.
So
with this background my advice is simple.
1.
If you do not need an email or not competent enough in using please
do not open one.
2.
If you do have one do not share it with others.
It
is private property like an address.
Like
our politicos you cannot have more than one birth certificate or more
than one identity card.
3.
Hackers are out their to use you as a Zombie.
Identity
theft is a serious offense.
Our
politicos operate in this way.
4.
If you are opening an email, you should have at least two not one, for
good reason.
I
forgot my password for my private email it took three months for me
to recover.
I
forgot the 'the pet phrase' and the document that I wrote them was
misplaced.
After
three months, my memory recovered by accident and the pet phrase
(now I have a pet phrase recovery method) was typed in to get back to
the normal working order.
This
was time I was migrating from Microsoft (dual booting) to Linux so my
memory loss was not due to sickness but due to work overload and lack
of sleep.
Trying
to do too many things one at the same time and wasting my time
downloading Linux at night.
It
was appallingly slow and University download was even worse and was
restricted.
This
was the time I had a university email and it was hacked by a guy who
worked there for a while (temporary may be) and did some damage due
probably to personal vendetta after leaving the university.
He took the password and the email password document of a particular faculty with him.
This
was the time of mistrust and terrorism in its peak and with the most
bizarre password (it was stolen) of all, I had was stolen.
The
password was file was stored in a Microsoft Server which was
available for the hacker/s.
So
my conviction to go for Linux for the sake of Security was of
paramount importance and the university was slow to adapt to Linux.
I
never used university portals for my work and developed my own little
private network which is practically dismantled to save my
electricity bill NOW.
My
daughter's Microsoft computer at home with
wireless connectivity was
hacked most probably by a guy in the Engineering Faculty but never
ventured to capture the culprit / guy but changed my tactics to be
secure.
Coming
back, if you forget your password, the easiest way is to give the
service provider the alternative email so that they send an instant
email for you to have a new password.
This
simple technique was not there 15 years ago.
5.
The use of alternative email gives you flexibility.
6.
I have many emails and one email is for money transactions only and I
do not give it to anybody.
7.
Another is to keep track with my batch mates and I always get the sad
news of demise of another guy with serious illness.
8.
Another one for all the academic / magazine articles.
9.
The email what I regularly use is called the Junk Email. So anybody who sends an email to it is considered a JUNK MAN / WOMAN.
10.
My biggest problem is when I kick the bucket who will be responsible
for them.
I
have already forwarded them to Apaya Director to take appropriate
action since I will be in Apaya as a guest speaker since I have done
nothing to stop the Sri-Lankan National / International criminals who
go scot free from all their crimes and his / her / their balance of
crimes have been credited to my account by accident.
I
need to clean my balance sheet at Apaya before I think of my next
birth.
Not
Sri-Lanka again by default.
I
am tired living with criminals, including Cyber criminals.
