Outlook Express Attachment Filtering

The company I work for has about 80 stand alone computers running windows XP. The powers that be suddenly decided they wanted to limit what our users were able to do (and rightly so).. for some reason I got nominated to help with this (I told them I don't know spit, but they don't seem to believe me)

Anyway, I can figure out how to limit what they are able to do through the use of templates...I can't figure out if there is a way to filter email attachments based on type. Outlook Express has an option to prevent opening or saving attachments, and a filter rule for attachments, but it's an all or nothing type deal... I need to be able to allow .pdf, and zip...there is no reason for anything else.

Is there a way to implement a security template that affects Outlook also? I've been reading through the Windows XP Security Guide, but I haven't found anything relevant yet..but it's 206 pages so there's a chance I just haven't seen it yet.

I haven't had a chance to read the Threats and Countermeasures guide yet. Google keeps coming up with commercial applications, and ways to define the rulesets.

So is it possible? I didn't find anything in the way of plugins (other than spam filters), and I haven't found any other email clients that filter attachments by type.


EDIT: Our software budget is about shot... I finally convinced them they needed to get update all win98 and winme to XP.... that was for roughly half the sites

I guess an option would be to block all emails with attachments that don't originate from the company server....

groovicus, I found this by searching google: http://www.google.com/search?hl=&cat...ment+Filtering
There are 4-5 of the results that look like they could do the job for you, but I didn't read far enough into any to see if any could be set up on your server. Most looked to be for the workstations themselves.
By expanding the search to include templates, I found this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=&cat...ring+templates
If any of these work for you let me know, so that I can tell you 'google is your best friend'.(of course if they won't work......you can tell me 'Dummy, I already tried that'.....lol)

If you made it to upgrade Windows 98 and Me to Xp, I'm sure you can work hard to get a Windows 2003 Server with Active Directory! You'll in top shape! With a good network drive for backup, your compagny will start doing very good!

Well, we already have the server.... unfortunately we are a government funded outfit, so what's in the budget is what's in the bank. If we spend the money on applications we don't necessarily need, then we don't have anything in reserve. When the money is gone, the money is gone.

The budget just came out the first of the year, and there's already a considerable dent in it :D

What OS does your server run? I suggestsetting up a Active Directory and buying the CAL (Client Access Licence) need to access the server legally and don't upgrade a few Windows 98 machine to save the money there.

What type of mailserver you guys running.....or are you running one? If you are, why not set up a delivery rule that would block the attachments in question? If your not running one, how many mailboxes would you need?

You can get MDaemon Pro Unlimited User for $1,980.00. It's a really good server, IMHO, as administration is almost not needed and it's simple as hell to configure. Has a few minor security flaws, but what doesn't (BTW, thy put out patches pretty quick, unlike MS)

It can do multiple domains, bayesian mail scanning, tarpitting and a whole lot more, as well as the ability to filter messages by file extension, message subject, mime headers, etc.

You can also purchase the AV option for the unlimited version for an additional $1,250.00, and it will run in conjuction with your server's file system AV, so incoming mail will get double-scanned. If you set the updates 12 hours apart for each AV....well, I think you get the Idea.

Price ranges for the mailserver run from $330.00 for 6 users up to unlimited.

And no...it's not a sales pitch...just a suggestion.