1. Your e-mail is not private.

2. Your e-mail might not be sent to intended recipient.

3. Your e-mail can continue to exist even after you delete it.

The following article explains truth of these alarming statements and why you should be concerned if you're sending confidential messages by e-mail.

1. The privacy problem ---------------------- When you send an e-mail message from computer A to computer B it passes through one or more machines (C, D, E, etc.) on its journey. At each step along way, an unscrupulous individual with access to intermediate machine has opportunity to read -- or even alter -- your e-mail message.

Within a private intranet (i.e. a company network), such privacy violations could occur if:

* IT staff with access to mail server were unscrupulous;

* unauthorised personnel had access to mail server (e.g. if someone walked away from server without logging out); or

* security measures designed to keep hackers out of mail server were insufficient or were not enforced rigorously.

When e-mail is sent over Internet (a public network) risks become notably higher. If you send an e-mail message from Sydney to New York it may pass through half-a-dozen machines on its journey, *each* of which are subject to risks mentioned above. Thus hazards accumulate with each extra machine that message passes through.

2. The identity problem ----------------------- Another risk with e-mail is that you really don't know who will receive it. This happens because some people choose to forward (i.e. divert) their e-mail to another person or authorise another person to read it for them. For example, if you send a message to a senior colleague, remember that this person's e-mail might be read by his or her secretary or stand-in. That can be awkward.

Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express Tips and Tricks:

o Did you know that you can view ongoing email conversations by quickly changing view in Outlook and Outlook Express? Select a message in your in-box, click on "View", point your cursor to "Current View" and then click "Group Messages by Conversation". You'll see all messages with that particular person and they'll be organized in a nice, neat thread!

o Worried about a virus? First off, NEVER open an attachment before virus checking it. Also consider using "Chilton Preview" rather than Outlook's built-in preview pane. http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Peaks/8392/

Microsoft Outlook's AutoPreview lets you see just first three lines of messages. It also leaves you susceptible to malicious code in html messages. "Chilton Preview" is a tiny add-on that puts a whole third pane on your Outlook window, to let you scroll through entire messages without opening them. It reads plain text equivalent of HTML messages so it does not leave you vulnerable to malicious code in HTML mail.

o You can have Outlook and Outlook Express quickly add any email addresses to your Address Book. Just open any incoming message then right-click on name you want to add. Then click on "Add to Address Book".

Outlook and Outlook Express keyboard Shortcuts:

o Press F3 to perform an advanced find. o Ctrl-Q will mark a message as read. o Ctrl-K matches text typed into TO field with an existing contact.

Outlook Add-ons you may want to try...