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  • From: Dan Smith <anilorac AT nc.rr.com>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] [Fwd: Inappropriate e-mail you may have received about Silent Sam]
  • Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 10:03:57 -0400

Ididn't get the email, but someone forwarded it to me about a week ago.  

I spoke to Roger Nelson several years ago about the abuse possibility with the first cdrom edition.  He explained to me GAA went through great effort to make sure to lock out (so to speak) the database files, so someone could not simply export, copy, or manipulate the data.  The only way to get export it would be to copy one record at a time, and they hoped to disable the copy feature.  UNC has many thousands of alumni, so manually copying the records would be arduous.

Now, this information is available in print edition as well, so anyone could manually type the email addresses into a database.  The GAA archive is a user pain to retrieve an alphabetical listing of the alumni.  The offender went to extreme trouble to do what he/she did, which is probably why this is the first time this problem has been a serious problem.  

Obviously, someone had way too much time on their hands.  Perhaps he/she should donate a nice fat sum of money to GAA to in part compensate for all the trouble he has caused!  :)



Beckett wrote:
Did anyone else get this?  They say that the UNC Alumni database hasn't been compromised, but they're selling it on CD-ROMs.  Apparently this email abuser cut-and-pasted from the CD-ROM, but what's to stop some spammer and a Perl script from doing the same thing again?  Yeesh.
TaB



Subject:
Inappropriate e-mail you may have received about Silent Sam
From:
"UNC General Alumni Assn." <alumni AT gaa.unc.edu>
Date:
Wed, 23 Apr 2003 00:41:10 -0400
To:
thomas AT tbeckett.com

In the past 24 hours, the UNC General Alumni Association has become aware 
and alarmed as a result of an inappropriate e-mail sent to UNC alumni with 
the subject: UNC's Silent Sam is in danger!  We have determined that only 
alumni with last names beginning with "A" through "C" and into the letter 
"D" received this e-mail.

Please understand that the GAA is taking this unauthorized use of alumni 
information very seriously. Please be assured that there has not been a breach 
in the security of alumni data. The person who sent this e-mail, who is an 
alumnus, chose to disregard the "copyright" information* stated on the 2002 
CD-ROM alumni directory and has misused individual alumni data contained 
in the directory. The GAA also does not endorse or advocate the position 
stated in the e-mail message or on the Web site to which this e-mail linked.

Our initial investigation into this incident has provided us with this additional 
information:

- The message was sent by an alumnus of UNC.

- This alumnus purchased a 2002 UNC Alumni Directory CD-ROM in September 
2002.

- From the CD-ROM directory, this individual created a file of UNC alumni 
e-mail addresses by manually copying and pasting the individual e-mail address 
for each alumnus.
 
- An additional disturbing problem with this incident was that, when an alumnus 
receiving the original message replied to the "mailer" address in the original 
e-mail, that message was then mailed to numerous alumni on the list as well, 
perpetuating the nuisance of this incident.

What the GAA has done in response to this incident:

1. On Monday afternoon, April 21, the alumnus responsible was identified 
and told to stop sending e-mail messages to UNC alumni. The alumnus agreed 
to comply.

2. At approximately 9 p.m., Monday, the alumnus responsible was contacted 
again, and he confirmed that at 4 p.m. he had directed the shutdown of the 
server sending the inappropriate e-mails.

3. The alumnus responsible is receiving a "cease and desist" letter from 
both the GAA and the Harris Publishing Co., the GAA's partner in publishing 
the directory.

In closing, the GAA is extremely disappointed that your e-mail address has 
been abused by a fellow alumnus. The GAA has taken great care to ensure that 
alumni information cannot be downloaded from the CD-ROM directory or from 
the online directory.

While that level of security had been achieved, it is not possible to prevent 
someone from breaking the copyright restrictions and taking data for unauthorized 
use in a time-consuming, manual method of copying and pasting, one record 
at a time.

We are extremely sorry for this inconvenience. Many alumni clearly appreciate 
the ability to look up classmates in the 2002 directories as well as the 
online directory, so it is particularly unfortunate that someone has abused 
this service.

You may have further questions. Please do not hesitate to contact Roger Nelsen, 
Director of Alumni Records and Information Systems, toll-free at 1-877-377-7125 
or by e-mail at roger_nelsen AT unc.edu.

Sincerely, 


Douglas S. Dibbert
President, UNC General Alumni Association

*Alumni Directory copyright:
This directory is for official University and General Alumni Association 
use and also for individual communication of a personal nature between members 
listed herein. Use of this directory for any other purpose, including, but 
not limited to, reproducing and storing in a retrieval system by any means, 
electronic or mechanical, photocopying or using the addresses (electronic 
or otherwise) or other information contained in this directory for any private, 
commercial, or political mailing is strictly prohibited and is in direct 
violation of copyright and constitutes misappropriation of corporate property. 
Such unauthorized use may also violate the rights of privacy and/or publicity 
of individuals listed herein and may constitute tortious interference with 
contractual relationships related to this publication.
		
700279960

  

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