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i want Thunderbird to block email with a .zip attachment

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I am receiving emails every day that have a .zip file attached. The message is always something as "you need to update your bank information", etc "so just click on the attached file to get started" An obvious ploy to get me to open the attached zip file which is of course a spyware or malware program (.exe)

Can you PLEASE just create a simple checkbox for Thunderbird to either allow or disallow email with a ZIP file attached?

I am receiving emails every day that have a .zip file attached. The message is always something as "you need to update your bank information", etc "so just click on the attached file to get started" An obvious ploy to get me to open the attached zip file which is of course a spyware or malware program (.exe) Can you PLEASE just create a simple checkbox for Thunderbird to either allow or disallow email with a ZIP file attached?

All Replies (5)

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Glad you do pay attention and don't open the message or even run the attachment. You can either delete the message right away, or let junk mail controls take care for it. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Junk_Mail_Controls for more information.

A checkbox to disallow email with a ZIP attachment is not going to work. Then tomorrow someone will request a checkbox for Word documents, and the next one wants to block PDFs. There are tons of different file extensions ... you get the idea.

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Dear christ1,

I don't agree! I was looking for a solution for the same problem. Maybe not a checkbox, but a textfield where you can add extensions might be a solution.

We are having big problems with ransomware at this moment and most of it is distributed through .zip, Word and Excel documents. So we have a company wide policy of not allowing those attachments, but humans tend to make mistakes, so sometimes one slips through.

We are blocking the emailaddresses and/or domains that are sending these mails, but with spoofed mailaddresses that's not possible.

One company that is misused a lot at the moment is KPN. Mails are sent as if they are from @kpn.com, but they are not.

KPN itself doesn't sent bills as attachments, but these ransomware criminals do, using .zip, .doc, .docx, .xls and .xlsx as extensions (most of the times).

So I would like to be able to select which attachments are allowed and which not. And if an attachment is not allowed, I would love to see it deleted at the server instead of the local computers.

Companies are creative enough to find others to contact us to bill us, and if not, they can always go back to the reliable postal services without spam and ransomware :)

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I would love to see it deleted at the server instead of the local computers.

That would certainly make sense. Then Thunderbird would never see the zip attachment, and hence no 'checkbox' or 'textfield' is needed for Thunderbird.

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christ1 zei

I would love to see it deleted at the server instead of the local computers.

That would certainly make sense. Then Thunderbird would never see the zip attachment, and hence no 'checkbox' or 'textfield' is needed for Thunderbird.

That's not entirely true! I had a mailprogram (used several before Thunderbird) which had the option to delete mails on the server. Don't ask me how it worked, but it must have 'looked' on the server which mails were waiting and it was able to delete messages on the server without downloading them (maybe just the headers?)

At that time I was using POP3, instead of IMAP.

But on the other hand: When ISP's don't take responsibility, or aren't allowed to due to the laws in some countries, I would love to have this option on my local systems (and mobile apps ;) )

I've asked the question to all mailsuppliers I am using, but none of them have responded at this moment (not even the ones that normally respond within 30 minutes!) so it might be a little more complex question.

But maybe it's an idea to not add it as standard to Thunderbird, but as an add-on, so people can decide for themselves?

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Is it possible to make a filter to move a message based in on specific extensions in the attachement?

Modified by brundleflyguy