IT Security Stack Exchange
IT Security Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [email-attachments]

53 questions
53
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2 answers

How do US government agencies open their email attachments?

I suppose the FBI receives email with attachments, like any other government agency: documents, resumes/CVs, etc. I also suppose they are very careful not to get infected, more than the average user, for obvious reasons. If I were to send an email…
reed
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45
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7 answers

Why do email server/clients block executable attachments?

If I send an email with an .exe attachment to an Outlook recipient, the email client blocks the attachment and the recipient has no way of overriding this security setting (short of making certain changes to the registry). If I send the same email…
user225011
32
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5 answers

Is there any security benefit from emailing a "secure link"?

Sometimes I receive email messages from organisations I'm involved with saying something like: Alice at AnyCo has sent you a secure message Along with a link to access said message. Sometimes I'm then asked to create an account. The last one even…
James Bradbury
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3 answers

How can I tell if a PDF file I was sent contains malware?

I was emailed a PDF file by a family member. I have reason to suspect that it was given to said family member by someone who would like nothing more than to infect me with a Remote Access Trojan. How can I tell if it contains code that would allow…
user158844
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19
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4 answers

What lessons can be learned from the latest spate of Ransomware attacks?

I'm not sure this is the right place, but figured people would find it useful if they aren't too familiar with security policies and general best practices. There is a lot of information out there, however, we all know that you can't completely…
Lelantos
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16
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6 answers

How do I investigate where personal information in a fraudulent email was leaked from?

I have seen an email which is obvious from the content that it's a phishing/spurious email. However, the personal content is quite revealing and specific to that individual. How could I go about investigating how and where this personal data was…
Djuro
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10
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2 answers

Is it possible to get infected by opening an email in Android Gmail app?

I just received an email from an unknown person, titled "da vinci" and containing a docx file with the same name. Not suspicious at all, right? I have not opened or downloaded the file, but: The email has been downloaded by the Gmail app in my…
AJPerez
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10
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7 answers

how to send confidential data through email?

At the moment I'm doing the following: add to zip and encrypt files send the encrypted zip to the recipient create a note through noteshred.com share the link through out-of-band SMS noteshred is also protected by a password But it's a big hassle,…
dal
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6
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3 answers

Which is a safe way to transfer a copy of a sensitive document?

A reputable and clearly identified institution asked me, for legitimate reasons, to e-mail a scan of the passport. However, I regard the passport as a sensitive document and am pretty reluctant to use the e-mail to that end, for generic/general…
XavierStuvw
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4
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3 answers

What's the point of S/MIME?

I received an email recently which displayed as an empty body with a smime.p7m attachment. After some Googling, I discovered it was an encrypted email -- neat! So I started looking for the key. But... I couldn't find it. On a hunch, I tried…
Nic
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4
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2 answers

E-Mail attachments can be opened using their URL in webmail even after logging off

My E-Mail is on Bell Net. I noticed today what I thought was a major security hole. Then I wasn't sure so I wanted to post this. I discovered that even though I have logged off my E-Mail, I can still open attachments from my E-Mail. I viewed my…
Denis H
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3
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2 answers

How this tracking (and more) was done using an image in an email?

As reported in the NY Times, there was some type of electronic spying in a high-profile military trial. Its claimed that the prosecutors were spying on the defense: The court-martial ... has been thrown into turmoil by, of all things, a …
StayOnTarget
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3
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2 answers

I received an encrypted email attachment as a reply to a previous conversation, months later

As in the title - I received an email reply to a months old thread containing a password protected zip file. I had previously asked them for a particular CAD file, but this was months ago and we had resolved the issue without me ever needing the…
Bassinator
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3
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Search function in Outlook and attachements

I am wondering how the search function of Outlook is working, especially in regards to researching key words that are presents in emails attachements. Does the Outlook search function opens the files as it would do in preview mode? Or does it use…
404guest
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3 answers

How to inspect an email attachment without downloading it?

I accidentally opened a PDF email attachment on an Android phone as I was trying to figure out if the email was fraud or a scam. It was an email claiming I booked a flight and the pdf had my e-tickets. I wanted to download the attachment to have it…
Jayson
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