making outlook 2003 secure

[BriGy86]

im an outlook newb, just set up my e mail acount to work with it for the 1st time and it seems to function just fine, but im wondering if there are any settings i should enable/diasble to make it more secure like encryption etc.

any help, tips, or web site referals would be great

thanks

*EDIT*

just downloaded mozilla thunderbird and imported all my data from outlook

would i be better off using this program instead?

 

[mechBgon]

Run it under a Limited user account, keep it updated using the Office Update site or the Microsoft Update site, and make sure your antivirus software stays up-to-date.

 

[BriGy86]

any reason? as far as stuff that may automaticly run?

i keep windows and office up to date, i have good anti-virus and anti-spyware that i keep updated, and i know not to open stuff up from people i don't know

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: BriGy86
any reason? as far as stuff that may automaticly run?

i keep windows and office up to date, i have good anti-virus and anti-spyware that i keep updated, and i know not to open stuff up from people i don't know

By "any reason?" do you mean "any reason to run it under a Limited account?" If so... well, just the obvious thing: not endowing your email client (Outlook, Thunderbird or anything else) with the ability to burn your computer to the ground with the latest & greatest zero-day exploit. It's one of the pillars of a defense-in-depth strategy, don't hand out Administrator-level privilege to anything that doesn't legitimately NEED it. Ditto for web browsers, IM programs, media players, you name it, they're better off under a Limited account.

Besides limiting damage from exploits, malware that's gotten hold of your Limited account also will not have enough power to kill most types of security software, change your HOSTS file to keep you from getting antivirus updates, turn off your Windows Firewall, register services, install rootkits, etc. Probably a malware author's worst nightmare. :evil: The downside is that some software needs help running properly in a Limited environment.