should be a POP3daemon with the distro if thats what you want to do,if not, they are readily available for free, sendamail will work though
goto
http://www.tldp.org for how to's and docs
secure it?from what or whom?If a port is open, a port is open........all you can do is if its a separate box eliminate as much as possible so an intruder wont have anything to work with, and restrict all the permissions as much as possible