Attention Real Estate Professionals, It’s Time to Secure Your Email
If you have a wireless laptop, listen up! It’s time to make sure your email is secure.
When you sit at your local coffee shop to surf the internet and get your email, you
are most likely using a connection that is not encrypted. This means the data flying
through the air from your laptop to the internet is not secure. It can be intercepted.
Most wireless hotspots don’t bother turning encryption on because it would make
them crazy having to hand out the password to everyone and then deal with all of
the people that did not know how to use it to connect. To keep it easy for everyone,
encryption stays off.
What this means is that when you send and receive your email, your username and
password go flying through the air for any computer geek to grab. The tools you
need to do it are so simple to use these days that even some non-geeks are getting
in on the action.
It’s a real risk to your security and the security of your real estate data that most
people aren’t aware of.
Fortunately, most email providers offer the option to encrypt your email
transmissions (both sending and receiving) with the same level of security that you
find when you log into your bank accounts on the internet. The tricky part is that
you actually have to turn the option on for it to protect your email. And what’s
worse, some of the big name ISPs (like SBC) don’t offer this option for subscribers.
If you have your own real estate website and corresponding email service, check
with your web host as they probably DO offer the extra security.
This “extra security” is called SSL. It doesn’t matter what it stands for, just know
that it means that your email will be encrypted and therefore protected from prying
eyes when you use the internet at wireless hotspots.
The quickest way to see if you “qualify” is to follow these simple steps:
1. Contact your ISP or web host and ask them if they support sending and receiving
email with SSL encryption.
2. If they do, ask them for the correct settings to put into your email program.
As wireless hotspots become more and more widespread and the software that
allows people to do wireless “snooping” becomes easier and easier to use, it is
important that you take precautions to protect your data.
Check into it now, because somebody’s watching…
Jason Leister, the Real Estate Technology Guru ™, is owner of Computer Super
Guy, LLC, a Chicago-based technology firm that helps real estate professionals
profit with technology.
Visit http://www.computersuperguy.com/subscribe to subscribe to our free monthly eZine,
ProfIT, and receive a FREE copy of our special report “The Truth About Real Estate
Websites and Search Engine Optimization.”