Email Address Fields

When you send an email, you need to select the address that will receive it. You can add them to
one of three fields; To, Cc and Bcc. All three fields can send an email to several recipients in one
go, however they work slightly differently.

To: The "To" line is for the primary recipient. Put the email address here if the message is for this
recipient’s action and attention only. This line is visible to all other recipients (Cc, and Bcc) by
default.
CC: Stands for Carbon copy. Put email address(es) here if you plan to send a copy to other
recipients in addition to those listed in the ‘To’ field. This is used if you don’t mind that
recipients seeing who else is getting a copy, because the list of recipients is included in the header
message.
BCC: Similar to Cc, Blind Carbon Copy sends a copy of a message for the information of a large
number of people. It is used if you are sending someone a copy of an email, and you don ’t want
the other recipients to see that it was also sent to this email address because the message doesn’t
include that information in its header fields. Bcc recipients can see those listed in the To and Cc
list.
From: As you might have expected, the From header field contains the messages author. The
authors email address is always included in the From field. You can also include a name to appear
alongside your email address by updating the Personal Information settings in your email client.
Including your name will not only look more professional to outsiders, it remove any ambiguity
over who is sending the message.
Email message
An email message is made up of three components:

Envelope: An email message has two addresses associated with it. Message headers are used by
the email recipient to identify who has messaged them. The lines From: and To: however, aren’t
enough to route an email message on to the intended recipient. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
(SMTP) servers use what’s called an envelope to route email.

Just like a normal mail envelope, an email envelope helps route the message to the intended
destination. The envelope is abstract since it’s not something that an email user will ever see. To
route an email, the sender's email program connects to their outgoing server and tells it the
sender's email address and that of the recipient. This interaction is called the envelope. It then
sends the rest of the message which includes the headers ‘To’, ‘From’, ‘Date’ and
‘Subject’ and the message body itself.

The envelope and the message arrive together at the recipients mail server. The envelope is often
discarded at this point, and the message lands in the recipient's mailbox.
Body message: The body of an email is the sum of the message contents. It can include text,
images, links and media including attachments.
Header: The final component of an email is the header which is arguably the most interesting part
of an email. The header precedes the content (the body) of the message and comprises fields that
contain information about the sender and receiver, subject and date fields. There’s also
information about the route the message took to find the recipient. Each server that processed the
email message is given an entry in the header, which helps to track a message ’s origin if it looks
suspicious.
Email Address
An email address is the electronic version of a real life postbox. It can send and receive email
messages over a network of connected machines such as a local network not connected to the
wider internet or the internet).

Email Abuse and Spam

We’ve mentioned the prevalence of email use over the last few decades, it’s the perfect
environment for abuse. Given the enormous use of emails sent and received worldwide every day,
they have become a target for abuse and spam. Think about how cost effective sending large
amounts of email messages is to many recipients online. For this reason, it’s never been more
important to use filters that sort legitimate email from spammers.

Spam, also known as junk email is when unsolicited messages are sent by email. More often than
not, spam is from a commercial advertiser because it’s email is a more cost effective medium for
the sender. To be classed as spam an email has to be not only commercial but have fraudulent or
malicious intent. These are often sent in bulk (the act of spamming) by people you don’t know.
Many spam emails contain links to familiar websites but in fact lead to sites that are hosting
malware of phishing sites. Spam is delivered in various ways. These messages are orchestrated by
a spammer. A spammer is an individual or an entity (group of individuals or a company) that sends
spam emails.

There are several types of fraudulent spam practices that email users and email administrators
need to watch out for:

Email Phishing where private data is captured. The user clicks on an email designed to look the
same as that of a trusted party, your bank for example. The website asks for login and personal
information. The most common phishing email involves a message alerting you to a problem with
a sensitive account. Users click the link, enter their login and password details in the fraudulent
site, and by doing so , hand them over to the scammer.
Email Spoofing is when an email message is sent with a forged sender address. Most of us know
spam when we see it, but seeing a strange email from a friend or recognized third-party can be
quite disconcerting. Even if it looks like it’s come from a recognized place, it doesn't mean your
friend, bank, etc. has been hacked. Spoofing is commonly used in tandem with spam and phishing
emails to mislead recipient over the origin of the message.
Email Worms: An email worm is a nasty piece of work. It distributes copies of itself in an email
attachment. The infected emails are sent email addresses that the worm has harvested from files on
the infected computer. This can amount to thousands of infected computers and many more
compromised emails being sent.

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to protect yourself from worms. The most effective
method to prevent worms infecting your computer is to keep your security and antivirus software
up to date so that it can catch all new viruses and worms out there. Being vigilant is equally
important. Make sure that you are aware of the kinds of emails and attachments you recieve.
Another step to preventing malpractice is using email programs with built in spam filters such as
Hotmail and Outlook. These programs not only track emails and filter them for viruses, they will
give you peace of mind that your computer is free from viruses or worms.

Most of the time, people get a virus from their own family and friends, since they aren ’t as
vigilant with determining whether to open something from a familiar party. If in doubt, check with
the sender to make sure it was they who sent the message, or if you do become infected, make
sure to inform them so that they can fix the problem before it does more damage.
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