Office 2013 In Depth

Security Overview

The fact that Outlook receives data from other people (in some cases, people unknown to you) makes Outlook a potential source of attacks on your computer. These attacks can include the appropriation of information that you store in Outlook, such as your Contacts list. Nothing is more embarrassing (and potentially damaging) than having an infected file attachment “take over” Outlook and send copies of itself to everyone in your address book.

Attacks on your computer are not limited to email attachments and code embedded in HTML messages (which we discuss later in this chapter). Hackers have been known to exploit imperfections in software packages such as Microsoft Outlook and the other Office applications. Operating systems (such ...