Security aspects for e-mail

Protection against unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam)

The Internet service e-mail is threatened by the mass sending of unsolicited commercial e-mail. These e-mails, known as spam, usually have more or less dubious commercial content ("Make money fast…") or are intended to entice people to engage in illegal activities.

Viruses, worms, Trojans: Dangerous e-mails

The spread of malware by e-mail is also a danger. Such e-mails with dangerous attachments usually carry a forged sender address, but also known senders. The contents are often very cleverly formulated (e.g. special offers, invoices with high sums, blockings, threats), so that the recipient is inclined to click on the dangerous attachment and thus start a malicious programme. This then "infects" the PC or smartphone, making these devices themselves send mass mails, spy on the user's privacy or even render the PC unusable by encrypting or deleting data.

To filter such damaging e-mails, three virus checking systems are used on the servers of DFN-MailSupport. If an e-mail containing a virus is identified, this e-mail is not accepted. In addition, e-mails with file attachments identified by Microsoft as "potentially dangerous" are rejected. Please read our blog post for details and hints to transfer such data (in German): Erhöhung der Sicherheit im elektronischen Mailverkehr

For you as an email user, the duty of care remains intact despite the central virus filter:

In the e-mail program: Think before you click! Only open e-mail attachments if you expect an attachment from your communication partner.
Use anti-virus software with current virus identifications. See: Protection against computer viruses