POPI Act 2021
South Africa is implementing a new law called the POPI act starting 1 July 2021. This law aims to help people get back control of their information.
In order to help your website stay POPI compliant we will be implementing the following changes:
- Contact forms will not store any data on the website, all contact forms entries will be sent directly to your email address
- A general cookie notice and privacy policy will be added to your website indicating how cookies and information is used.
PLEASE NOTE that you as the owner of the website will be responsible for compliance with the POPI act. DOBE, its employees and affiliates will not be responsible for any actions that may occur for POPI non-compliance on your behalf. We strongly advise that you ensure your business is compliant with the POPI act (this goes above and beyond the website, your internal data policies etc. also need to be compliant)
Unfortunately we cannot offer you legal advice on the POPI act and we can only do our small part in helping you stay compliant with the measures we put in place as mentioned above. We recommend you reach out to your legal council for more information and advice.
You can read more about the POPI act here – https://popia.co.za/
IMPORTANT Email Security
All too often we hear the stories of people being hacked and spammed because of negligent email and IT practices.
When making use of emails you need to ensure and take note of the following:
- Make sure you are using a legitimate operating system as well as up to date software
- You are using proper encryption on your email, a.k.a SSL (Secured Socket Layer). When setting up your email always make use of the SSL options, for IMAP this is port number 993, for POP3 this is 995, and for outgoing or SMTP this is 465 (Our team will always setup your email using secure settings)
- DO NOT use port numbers 25, 110, or 587, you use these ports at your own risk
- We will never ask you for your username or password
- We will never send you an sms, email or phone asking for your email details such as username or password.
- Your email/hosting will not automatically expire, our billing department will contact you if your account is overdue before suspending/cancelling services.
- If you receive an email stating that you have to click a link in order to prevent your email from being stopped, that is SPAM, DO NOT click on those links
- We cannot prevent most spam from coming through to your device, you need to make use of proper, trusted anti virus software.
- Never, ever, under any circumstances give out your username or password to anyone if you feel at risk.
- Always practice safe and vigilant online practices including:
- Don’t click on suspicious links or web pages
- Don’t visit dodgy internet sites
- Always make sure your device has a secure password.
- Don’t open emails if they look suspicious.
- Make sure you have a trusted antivirus software installed.
- Do proper IT security checks and audits in your company on a regular basis to ensure that you and your employees are practicing safe online practices and ensure you educate yourself and those around you.
This article from Afrihost is useful in educating yourself on internet security – https://help.afrihost.com/topic/security/how-to-avoid-getting-hacked
DOBE and its affiliates will not, and cannot take any responsibility if you are hacked or scammed because of negligent internet security practices.
Be safe!