Could you do your job without email? Well if you are an office worker or field based executive, it would probably be difficult. And what about in your private life? We spend so much time online not having email could be a bit of a challenge for many of us.
How much of our time do we spend reading and sending emails?
A survey in 2015 of US office workers by Adobe reported the number to be 3.2 hours a day on work emails and 3.1 hours a day on personal emails. 6.2 hours a day!
Pretty scary isn’t it?
More worrying, however, than time consumed by this addiction is the amount of email traffic we will be exposed to. Another 2015 survey found the average office worker received 121 emails per day (a figure which is sure to be higher now). With this volume of traffic to deal with, how can a typical office email user be expected to spot the highly sophisticated email scams that modern day cyber criminals are using to attack our businesses?
I would argue that tackling the way we use email should form a big part in our strategies to defend our businesses against Cyber Crime. Here are a few suggestions that might help curb the addiction (at least in the office!):
Turn off email notifications
How tempted are you to check for new email when you see a pop up or icon on your phone? Switch it off and deal with email when you are ready.
Use inbox management tools
Microsoft have a tool called ‘Focused Inbox’ which learns the emails that are important to you, meaning you can deal with circulars only when you have time.
Ditch internal emails!
This sounds radical but many companies are doing it, preferring to use team collaboration tools such as ‘Slack’ or ‘Microsoft Teams’ that offer a richer working environment
Email amnesty
Some businesses switch off email all together at certain times of the day.
If someone needs to reach you urgently there is always the phone. So why the urgency to open every new one?
Changing email habits often requires a cultural shift in organisations and can take time.
So there is no time like the present to start. Don’t be a slave to your email – or a sitting duck to cyber criminals.
To find out more about cyber security why not consider registering for one of our Cyber Security Workshops? Contact me now to book a place.
