Preview pane and security

[Alain Dekker]

I heard a while back that the following related information:

1) Several viruses/worms/trojans could be launched simply by opening an
email;
2) Even more could be launched by clicking on attachments or links in an
email;
3) There were several security problems with Microsoft email software
(buffer overflows, etc).

My questions are:
a) Are (1) and (3) still true?

b) More to the point, if I turn on the Preview Pane in Outlook, is there
*any* chance of a virus/worm/trojan/spyware thingy being launched?

c) If I turn on the "Read all standard mail as plain text" option in
Outlook, will all security problems go away (apart from opening dodgy
attachments)?

Thanks,
Alain Dekker

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

a) 1 and 3 have not been true for years. Even 2 is not true unless the user has tinkered with the blocked files list.

b) No known possibility unless you've tinkered with the security settings.

c) Yes.