Is there anyway to set up Thunderbird where you can't read existing mail that is in the program with out the password being entered.
Basically, when I click on TBP, I had it set to where I had to enter my password every time I opened Thunderbird. Earlier I was wondering what happens if you click on cancel and you don't enter the password, could someone still read the existing email that has already been downloaded. I found out that it doesn't block you from see current email, it just won't download new email.
Thanks!
http://www.mozilla.org/support/thunderbird/tips#beh_imappassword
Since tbird stores its email unencrypted on the disk (or flash drive) it will always be possible to open the email database files in a text editor and extract the text.
If you're worried from a security r confidentiality perspective, then the only sensible solution would be to store it on an encrypted drive. Personally I have a 4Gb Truecrypt container on my 8Gb flash drive, in which I store all the confidential stuff, and I only store non-sensitive data in the rest of the drive.