As an Outlook user, you may be wondering if there are things you can do to ensure your emails are more secure. Emails contain huge amounts of private data, and for this reason, it is vital to ensure that your Outlook is using every security feature that Microsoft has made available.
If you are planning on using Outlook daily, you should take the time to get to know the program before you base your everyday working schedule around it. On softwarekeep.com, you can find all the tips and tricks that can enable you to get to know the program quickly, and without the frustration that usually occurs when you’re trying to connect the dots on your own. Every feature can prove to be useful, and organizing your schedule with the help of Outlook can make you more efficient and productive than you were before!
In this article, we will take a quick look at security settings that are built into Microsoft Outlook. By following the simple steps in this guide, you can quickly and easily improve your settings to shore up your emails. If you want a secure email option that doesn’t involve a lot of effort, you should consult this useful secure email options guide.
#1. Set strong passwords
Whether you are logging into a Microsoft account, password protecting your Office 365 account, or perhaps even password protecting individual Outlook Data Files (.pst). It is vital that you select strong passwords. A strong password should be unique and it should be a mixture of upper and lower case characters, numbers, and symbols.
A truly robust password is extremely hard to remember because it should be both complex and long. For this reason, it is generally recommended that you use a password manager.
#2. Password protect your Outlook Data Files
If you are an Outlook user, you may not realize that it is possible to password protect your Outlook (.pst) data files. By setting a password for your Outlook data files, you will ensure that you are always prompted for a password when you either launch Outlook or load a particular .pst inbox. This means it is impossible to access your data files without entering the password
#3. Password protect your top-level folder.
Another way to protect your email is to password protect your email folders. While it is not possible to password protect individual subfolders, it is possible to password protect your top-level folder (usually called Personal Folder).
#4. Make items private
When you create items from within Outlook, it is possible to set up those individual items so that they are private. To do so simply click the private checkbox as and when you create items. When you make an item private, other users on the Exchange server will not be able to access any specific details for that item. Users with permission to access your folders will still be able to access these private items unless you revoke access to individual users. You can do this from the Delegates tab in the Tools menu.
#5. Set up dual factor authentication
Whether you are logging into your Microsoft account or Office 365 it is much more secure to do so with Two Factor Auth (2FA). Always be sure to tighten your security settings and setup 2FA as this will make it impossible to log in to your Outlook with only the credentials and password. This is an excellent way to protect against phishing attacks.
#6. Ensure your Outlook/Office is up to date
An out of date version of Office or Outlook, browser, or Operating System can open you up to vulnerabilities. For this reason, it is essential to ensure that your browser has been recently updated and that your Operating System has been updated with all the security essentials needed for Windows Defender. If you are an Office 365 user you can check for updates and download them from within Office Updates.
An up-to-date anti-virus is also recommended to ensure you don’t pick up any malicious software that could open your device up to intrusion.
#7. Send encrypted emails
Outlook permits users to send emails encrypted with the popular protocol S/MIME. This encryption will ensure that emails cannot be intercepted in transit and will allow you to send private emails that can never be read by anyone but the recipient. Office 365 also provides access to Microsoft’s Information Rights Management (IRM), a native encryption method for securing email data.