Thunderbirds very poor security

[Bantax]

I use Thunderbird but by no stretch of imagination can it be called more secure than Outlook Express. Start Thunderbird and it opens up, revealing all folders and then asks for a password. This is worse than useless, from the security point of view. Outlook Express requires your password FIRST, before revealing any mailboxes.
Sometimes I think the anti microsoft attitude ruins the objectivity which should be displayed when selecting the best freeware

[Remah]

Originally Posted by Bantax

I use Thunderbird but by no stretch of imagination can it be called more secure than Outlook Express. Start Thunderbird and it opens up, revealing all folders and then asks for a password. This is worse than useless, from the security point of view. Outlook Express requires your password FIRST, before revealing any mailboxes.
Sometimes I think the anti microsoft attitude ruins the objectivity which should be displayed when selecting the best freeware

Thanks for that interesting fact.

Thunderbird's interface puts me off.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by Remah

Thunderbird's interface puts me off.

Out of interest, which one do you use?

[Remah]

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

Out of interest, which one do you use?

Windows Live Mail. Historically it was easier using MS for my hotmail accounts.

I was looking to move to Thunderbird but found it rather dated.

[MidnightCowboy]

Thanks!

[Misty27]

I use Tbird, but like almost any software, it has things I don't like. One thing is what OP mentioned.

Another is if you read a message, then del it, it will automatically focus on the next message below, & open it in the mail browser window. What if you don't WANT to open the next message, because after more careful inspection of the subject, etc., you decide it's spam that got by the filters?

Unknown to many, now you don't have to open attachments or click links in email in order to get some nasties. All you have to do is read the email. At the very least, unless viewing all mail in text mode, spam mail (& probably most commercial generated email), they'll contain beacons that will phone home, confirming the email was read & your IP address.

[Ratzo]

Originally Posted by Bantax

I use Thunderbird but by no stretch of imagination can it be called more secure than Outlook Express. Start Thunderbird and it opens up, revealing all folders and then asks for a password. This is worse than useless, from the security point of view. Outlook Express requires your password FIRST, before revealing any mailboxes.
Sometimes I think the anti microsoft attitude ruins the objectivity which should be displayed when selecting the best freeware

Hi Bantax , Thunderbirds main strentgh is the use of addons thus all you have to do is install the Master Password extention the following link explains it well .
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows...ster-password/

If you want a simpler one then startupmaster extension would do .

[Themishmish]

[QUOTE=Bantax;67490
Sometimes I think the anti microsoft attitude ruins the objectivity which should be displayed when selecting the best freeware[/QUOTE]

I totaly agree with you, they improve over time...
As a current user of the bird, I must admit it's a pain, many times I ask my self "why"
And if you want to start having hebrew support + add multi sigs, pff that's a whole mess!!

[Odinbc]

If you don't like to look of Thunderbird try the, "Silvermel and Charamel XT" add-on.

[oblivion]

If you're that worried about Thunderbird's security, how about running it from a Truecrypt partition?

One possible strategy: create a Truecrypt container and mount it. Run Thunderbird and modify / create the local folders configuration to exist in a folder within the Truecrypt container -- for the sake of argument, T:\mail

Then create folders within the local folders setup to meet your needs, along with a folder called "inbox copy" or something similar.

Finally, define a rule to move incoming mail from your mail server's inbox to your new "inbox copy" folder.

A useful addon if you want to manage mail into various folders without automating it all completely is Nostalgy. It lets you define rules for moving mail around but lets you treat them as recommendations rather than set in stone: so shift-S will save a message into a folder you've already defined as its most likely destination but S will let you pick alternative destinations just by typing part of their name.

This setup will allow you to move all your filing from your mail server into Thunderbird and will completely fail to show an unauthorised user anything at all.

If you want to be completely belt-and-braces about it, make your Truecrypt container big enough to hold Thunderbird as well and, instead of using the normal version, use Thunderbird Portable (from PortableApps.com) and install it to and run it from inside the Truecrypt container. This has the advantage that you can allow Thunderbird to remember your mail passwords because it's already running inside an environment you have completely secured.

Whatever Thunderbird's deficiencies, after an awful lot of messing around with email clients in the last few years, both free and paid, I have yet to find anything better.