E-mail hoax at University of Maryland

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: RISKS List Owner <risko () csl sri com>
Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 17:17:39 -0700 (PDT)
To: risks () csl sri com
Subject: Risks Digest 22.72

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Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 13:28:07 -0400
From: "Paul Kafasis" <paul () pbones com>
Subject: E-mail hoax at University of Maryland

It appears that a gaping security hole at the University of Maryland led
to an unexpected "canceling" of classes for Friday, April 11th. One or
more students sent an e-mail to an address on campus which sent out to
3500 students and had no protection on it. From speaking to students at
the school, it appears that they were signed up for an e-mail list without
their knowledge, a list which accepted submissions from anywhere.
Thursday night (4/10), they began receiving confusing e-mails from each
other, trying to unsubscribe from the list. Before the OIT department
shut it down, a virus and a hoax e-mail canceling classes for the
following day due to "budget cuts" had been sent out.

The culprits even went so far as to spoof the format of other letters sent
out campus wide, as well as the headers and reply-to address. As their OIT
spokewoman said:

"E-mail is one of the most easily forged or compromised mediums," she
said. "Always verify anything that looks suspicious or strange."

Of course, if the students are correct that this was an open list sending
mail to 3500 people, they were just asking for trouble.

http://www.inform.umd.edu/News/Diamondback/archives/2003/04/14/news2.html

It looks like the culprits were making a Catch-22 reference to Colonel
Cathcart, but no one at the school got it. I found that to be the
funniest part of the article.

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