Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren vog Obam. Here. Your typical email program
Speaker 1: has several options to simultaneously message more than one person.
Speaker 1: You can load up the two box with many recipients
Speaker 1: and then blast away. Or you can put some or
Speaker 1: one in the two spot and then see ce the
Speaker 1: rest or b C C some or all. That b
Speaker 1: C C might be the trickiest, as it means that
Speaker 1: not everyone is privy to the same information, and it
Speaker 1: has some of the biggest risk for pitfalls. So when
Speaker 1: do you CEE CEE and when do you b C C?
Speaker 1: First the basics, the C C field probably stands for
Speaker 1: carbon copy and the b c C field stands for
Speaker 1: blind carbon copy. The carbon copies were common prior to
Speaker 1: email communication, and even more so prior to photo copying.
Speaker 1: In those days, if you wanted to distribute copies of
Speaker 1: a typed or handwritten document, you might writer type them
Speaker 1: on stacks of thin sheets of paper with a piece
Speaker 1: of pigmented carbon paper sandwiched between each sheet. The pressure
Speaker 1: of writing or typing on the top sheet of paper
Speaker 1: would transfer pigment from the carbon paper to the blank
Speaker 1: sheet underneath. Creating a carbon copy of the inked original.
Speaker 1: You can still find carbon copies in some memo pads
Speaker 1: or similar technology in more modern checkbooks and restaurants server pads.
Speaker 1: But these days, an email CC means you sent a
Speaker 1: copy of a message to someone other than the direct
Speaker 1: recipient in the two line. It's an easy way to
Speaker 1: keep vested parties in the loop on a subject. Notably,
Speaker 1: the CC format allows everyone to see each other's email
Speaker 1: addresses as well. BCC works the same way as CC,
Speaker 1: except the direct recipient in the two line doesn't know
Speaker 1: that anyone was BC seed on the message. So, for example,
Speaker 1: if you emailed the subordinate at work about being late
Speaker 1: with the project and bcced your own boss to show
Speaker 1: them that you were being diligent about tardiness, your subordinate
Speaker 1: wouldn't know that their lateness was being pointed out to
Speaker 1: your own superior. If that sounds a little secretive or tattily,
Speaker 1: it can be. BCCs usage can be loaded with etiquette
Speaker 1: pitfalls and potential backlash. It might be perfectly innocent. Let's say,
Speaker 1: if you're asking a question to a large group but
Speaker 1: don't want to burden the entire group with receiving every
Speaker 1: single person's answer. Just BCC everyone, But if you're purposefully
Speaker 1: hiding the fact that there are other recipients, it can
Speaker 1: be trouble. BCC is a notorious office space landmine, particularly
Speaker 1: if a secret person who's blind copied doesn't just reply
Speaker 1: to you, but accidentally hits reply all. Their reply will
Speaker 1: go both to you and the messages direct recipient. Now, whoops.
Speaker 1: One of many reasons to be careful about reply all.
Speaker 1: But still, there are some very good reasons to use BCC.
Speaker 1: Maybe a year supervisor of various contractor freelance workers who
Speaker 1: never interact with each other, and you want to update
Speaker 1: them all on policy changes without having to send individual emails.
Speaker 1: This isn't just a matter of convenience for you. It
Speaker 1: also protects the privacy of your freelancers who probably don't
Speaker 1: want a bunch of virtual strangers to see their personal
Speaker 1: email address. Or maybe your company trying to contact many
Speaker 1: customers about an important issue. You absolutely have to use BCC.
Speaker 1: Otherwise hundreds or thousands of people will suddenly see private
Speaker 1: email addresses. That's a major breach of trust. But is
Speaker 1: there a way for recipients to find out who was
Speaker 1: BCC on a message. We spoke via email with Shared
Speaker 1: de Grippo, Senior director of Threat Research and Detection for
Speaker 1: Proofpoint Email. She said, generally recipients can't see if someone
Speaker 1: has been blind copied on a message. Servers that receive
Speaker 1: messages are designed to strip out BCC information before they
Speaker 1: pass the message on to the recipient. This is the
Speaker 1: case for all recipients, including those in the two c
Speaker 1: C and BCC lines. The most common way for someone
Speaker 1: to figure out blind copied email addresses is when the
Speaker 1: sender accidentally puts people meant to be in the BCC
Speaker 1: line in the CC line. However, she notes that threat
Speaker 1: actors or packers have found ways to attack the privacy
Speaker 1: of BCC. One would be to access the target's inbox
Speaker 1: in one way or another and then simply look in
Speaker 1: the scent items to find out who was sent a
Speaker 1: BCC message. Or if your device is infected with data
Speaker 1: stealing malware, an attacker could access messages in the scent folder,
Speaker 1: the Crippo said. Another opportunity for compromise occurs when an
Speaker 1: attacker intercepts the sender's network traffic while the email is sent,
Speaker 1: and they see all recipients, including those blind copied, and
Speaker 1: she explained that this kind of thing happens frequently when
Speaker 1: someone is using public unencrypted WiFi and an attacker taps
Speaker 1: into the WiFi network traffic. And finally, quote if an
Speaker 1: attacker has compromised the emails rivers of the sender or
Speaker 1: any of the recipients, or intercepts the network traffic between
Speaker 1: these servers, they can also see all recipients. In other words,
Speaker 1: BCC is anything but impenetrable, so if you're a spy
Speaker 1: training in state secrets, you've been warned to protect yourself
Speaker 1: when using BCC, you can take a number of steps.
Speaker 1: The first and most obvious is to double check your
Speaker 1: recipients before you send any BCC messages, just to be
Speaker 1: absolutely sure you're using BCC and not CC. You should
Speaker 1: also regularly update your security software and anti virus programs.
Speaker 1: That way, your device will be guarded against current threats,
Speaker 1: the Grippo said. Be sure to also safeguard your email
Speaker 1: accounts with strong passwords and multi factor authentication whenever possible.
Speaker 1: It's important to avoid using un encrypted public WiFi networks,
Speaker 1: and if you must use them, be sure to use
Speaker 1: a virtual private network or VPN that will encrypt and
Speaker 1: protect your information. Today's episode was written by Nathan Chandler
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and
Speaker 1: lots of other technological topics, visit how stuffworks dot com.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of my heart Radio. For more
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