But first, we need to cover some of the general areas about e-mail managers and rehash, no, re-enforce our understanding of the role of filters, blocks, and general knowledge of protection for e-mail.  I can not emphasize enough the importance of a good anti-virus utility for one=s computer.  Remember my earlier discussions about open connections in broadband, high performance computers that are not protected, and how the unauthorized users want to use that unprotected computer.

Filters and blocks work to keep the spam e-mail controlled.  Filters and blocks will not keep viruses out like anti-virus programs, but will funnel the unwanted e-mail into a controlled sub-folder where it can be reviewed or deleted at will.  The filters route the unwanted e-mail to a specific folder where it can be observed unopened to determine what to do with it.

General Protection
Indulge me once more about broadband open connections and high performance computers.  In the days of dial-up, the hackers avoided real attacks on most individuals because it was too hard to make a connection and get anything back through the dial-up connection.  When the dial-up session was finished, the connection went away.  In dial-up, the IP address was different each time a user was on line.  The hackers were generally too lazy to really try attacks on dial-up.  And, since the computers were not really high performance enough to use, the hackers left dial-up alone.  Dial-up was usually not fast enough to use to gain addresses or to do denial of service attacks.  Since the dial-up was short term and dynamic (PPP (Point-to Point Presence)), the Internet connection was not accessible unless the IP address was known.  And, as personal use computers were not powerful enough to really be of use, hackers went after the corporate networks.  So, the hackers tended to go after openings in business network systems, where they could really do damage.

With the advent of broadband connections, either Direct Cable or DSL phone lines, with open bandwidth, coupled with computer power to do things, personal use computers became a prime target for hackers.  Personal-use computers were an easy target; most users are not up on security, and, as most users were using Microsoft OS. The attack was easy to pull off.  Remember that an open connection is on all the time, making the computer vulnerable to unauthorized use.  The bandwidth of broadband was also very useful to the hackers as a lot of unauthorized use could be accomplished in a short period of time via the relatively powerful computer.

 Some theft of personal information may be the goal of hackers against personal use computers, but the real need is the e-mail address books that are part of the personal e-mail utilities. Especially since most personal use computers are completely or partially unprotected.   A successful attack that captures 300 to 500 good e-mail addresses in a short period of time, and then sends the virus to all of the new addresses makes a Denial of Service attack an easy thing to do.  Or, to capture the addresses for sale to a pornographic or other spam-related site is easy money.

Most personal-use computer users are not experts on computer security or network security, and are not knowledgeable of the Microsoft OS to keep it up to date concerning security.  This is a deadly combination when coupled to the above open broadband bandwidth.  And, the security knowledge base is not coordinated or done in terms that allow non-experts can make good use of it.

Of course, the Microsoft OS systems did not take security seriously until very late in the game.  The various Windows OS=s systems were written for easy use by the lowest dominator, the un-informed personal user.  Market domination at the expense of its very user base seemed to be the number one goal for Microsoft for many years.  Only when the corporate user base rebelled because of costly unauthorized hacker attacks, did Microsoft really take security seriously.

The best defense in an e-mail program is an understanding of filters and blocks.  This is in addition to a good anti-virus program, and, hard or software firewall, of course.

Filters and Blocks
Filters are rules that the e-mail program can execute to determine if the contents of any e-mail has the characteristics that the rule is looking for.  Filters can be used for many things such as address sorting or gathering all the e-mail from a project together in addition to keeping unwanted e-mail controlled.  View filters make it easy to see only those items or files stored in the Outlook folders that meet the conditions that the rules specify.  Filters generally place like files together.  Exercise the view filters by highlighting the Outlook folder you want to apply the filter to and move the cursor to the <View> Menu and point to the <Arrange By>, then click on <Custom>.  Click <Filter>, and select the filter options wanted.  Additional criteria for the filter can be added by clicking the <More Choices> tab to select the additional options.  Blocks are used to keep files from even getting into the e-mail program.

In past versions of Outlook, rules were made to catch all the variations that could be in the subject or body of the e-mail. These rules made up the filters that looked at the incoming e-mail and determined if the e-mail was unwanted.  The rules were very specific as to words and character sets to be recognized.  It was almost impossible to include all the characters and symbols that were placed in the e-mail.  These rules made up the filter to keep the unwanted e-mail out, but had to be very specific about the characters and symbols that were to be looked at in the filter.  The pornographic and loan spamers have become really good at placing unfamiliar characters in the subject lines and body of their spam e-mail to confuse these rules.

 In Outlook 2003, Microsoft has replaced the specific rule assignment that was used in previous versions as filters and added a new set of features that automatically look at the incoming e-mail to filter the Junk e-mail out.  The specific rules have been replaced with a set of software utilities that look at incoming e-mail and determine if it is spam.  The Junk E-mail Filter is turned on by default, set to Low.  The setting can be made to be able to cull everything but allowed e-mail.  Microsoft has begun to employ the security features at installation, a new thing.  There are several setting levels that become progressively more aggressive to the point of catching good e-mail as well.  The captured e-mail is sent to a Junk E-mail folder.  This filter has two parts, Junk E-mail Lists and a state-of-the-art evaluation technology that looks at the content and structure of the e-mail.  This feature can be exercised from two locations Outlook 2003, the <Actions> pull-down menu, select <Junk E-mail>, then select <Junk E-mail Options> which opens a window with four tabs, <Options>, <Safe Senders List>, <Safe Recipients List>, and <Blocked Senders List>.  The Options Tab sets the general level of filtering from No Automatic Filtering to Safe Lists Only in four radio buttons.  The default is Low.  A check box is included to Permanently delete junk e-mail from the Junk E-mail folder.  The second tab is the Safe Senders List and contains domain names and e-mail addresses that you want to receive e-mail from.  This list (and the other two) is blank to start with and uses <Add>, <Edit>, and <Remove> buttons to fill out.  A check box at the bottom includes the Contacts address book e-mail addresses by default.  The third tab is the Safe Recipients List and contains the domain names and e-mail addresses of mailing lists that you belong to.  It is added or edited as the Safe Senders tab is done.  The fourth tab contains the Blocked Senders List.  E-mail addresses or domain names on this list will always be treated as junk or spam.  Again, this list is blank to start with and is developed by using the Add or Edit buttons.  All three lists are also added to by using the Right Mouse button to open the pull-down menu on any incoming e-mail that you do not want to retain.  This action opens the three choices, Blocked Senders, Safe Senders, or Safe Recipients Lists.  This is the easiest way to add to the lists.

Since the Contacts Address book addresses are considered safe by default, the main list to be concerned with is the Blocked Senders List.  For example, I have my Options Tab set to Low, which allows some unwanted e-mail to not be automatically sent to the Junk E-mail Folder.  I highlight on each new incoming e-mail, then preview it in the right panel preview column to determine if I want to keep it.  Upon determining that the highlighted e-mail is junk, I right click it and select the Junk E-mail pull-down menu selection, usually <Add Sender to Blocked E-mail List>.  This action adds the e-mail address to the blocked list from now on.  This is the safest way to build a Blocked E-mail list.

From time to time, I review the Blocked E-mail List to see if there are duplicate addresses or domains.  I usually find duplicate domains.  If these domains are unique, i.e., not main stream like aol.com, some .org, and .com addresses, or comcast.com, I edit them to make the domain a junk address.  Be very careful in this editing as you can route good addresses to the junk folder.  I leave the mainstream addresses in their full e-mail address form to keep them in the junk mail folder. It may be a good idea to not edit any of the e-mail addresses until you are really comfortable with the Blocked Senders List.

Conclusion
The current versions of Outlook and Outlook Express have the ability to limit much of the unwanted e-mail that we all receive today.  Especially, Outlook 2003, which has advanced filtering utilities built-in.  We all need to be familiar with the these security settings to get the most from our e-mail.