How secured is Thunderbird? (first time user)

In terms of privacy and viruses? Even though I'm a computer illiterate I've finally managed to set up my Yahoo mail account/Ypops. Can anyone tell me more about TB?

 

You cannot operate without an antivirus, which you should have. Thunderbird is as vulnerable as other predecessors, such as Netscape, as mail is located in a file called Inbox, and all its messages may be sent to a Virus Vault.
I don't think that any mail client is foolproof. It does not protect the clueless.
In my case, my ISP scans all mail, so it should be clean, but one has to be careful opening links and attachments.

 

Purple,

For more information on Thunderbird's security, see this page:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/features.html#secure

You might also read the Release Notes:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/2.0.0.14/releasenotes/