Security within Outlook Express

There are a number of ways in which you can increase your system security using the various settings within Outlook Express.

Click on Tools > Options and then onto the 'Security' tab. Put a dot in the box which says 'Restricted Sites Zone (more secure)' and ensure that the box marked 'Warn me when other applications try to send mail' is ticked. If you are using Outlook Express 6, you may want to untick the box 'Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened...' other wise you will not be able to open or save any attachments!

Attachments are the most likely way you are going to get a virus. To help prevent such viruses from getting into your computer:

• in Tools > Options on the 'Read' tab, untick the box which says 'automatically download message when viewing in the Preview Pane'
• better still, go to View > Layout and disable the Preview Pane altogether by unticking the box which says 'Show Preview Pane'
• even better still, don't view html based messages at all! Go to Tools > Options and to the 'Read' tab and tick the box which says 'Read all messages in plain text'. That will also stop all those annoying Incredimail animations as well :-) You can also change your 'Send' settings so that all your emails are sent in plain text as well. Viruses are much more likely to travel with or within html email messages
• for even greater security, go to the 'Security' tab and get a digital ID, encrypt all your email messages and digitally sign them
• ensure any anti-virus software you may be using is set up to scan incoming and outgoing email messages.

  Finally, always be careful with any e-mails you may receive.

Viruses in your Email

There are a number of ways in which a virus may get on to your computer - from a shared floppy disc or via web-pages on the internet, for example. However, the most common way in which most people get viruses is through e-mails and e-mail attachments. Here are some suggestions on how to keep yourself virus-free without spending large sums of money on 'anti-virus' software.

(1) The basic rule is: be wary about opening every and all e-mail attachments you may receive - especially if you have not specifically asked for them. Be wary of everyone who sends you e-mails, with your caution being proportional to their knowledge of computers
(2) Never open any email that is a 'chain e-mail' or a multiply-sent 'joke' or other such circulated item. These often contain viruses. Just delete the e-mail on arrival
(3) Always check the suffixes of any attachments you receive and never open any attachments with .vbs .pif .com .shs or .exe extensions or attachments with double-suffixes such as filename.jpg.exe or other wierd things you don't know what they are
(4) Delete all e-mail that looks suspicious before even opening it - such as an over-personal message from someone you don't know, eg: the 'I love you' virus or messages with explicit sexual content or files attachments with sexual filenames eg: pamela_nude.jpg.vbs
(5) Delete all unsolicited e-mail without even looking at it. Never open any attachments in such e-mails and never follow any links they may contain.
(6) Never accept attachments from strangers in online chat groups and avaoid downloading files from public newsgroups (usenet news) as these are often used by virus writers to spread their viruses.
(7) Be cautious about opening word documents (.doc) sent to you by e-mail if they are from people who use 'macros' in their Word .docs. Ask them to send you the same file in .rtf format instead (which will remove all the macros)
(8) Do NOT upgrade to the latest software until the security problems have been ironed out and wait until the hackers have discovered the virus effects that they can send to exploit the weaknesses in the new software (As an example, I was once sent the kak worm virus - but it only affected Internet Explorer 5. As I was still using IE4 at that time, it had absolutely no effect on me at all!)
(9) Back up your data regularly onto a read-only medium such as cd's

The best antivirus software is FREE - I recommend Grisoft's AVG Antivirus, which can be downloaded from this site here.

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