Georgetown Shuts Down Email For 14 Hours After Mailing Out Private Info
from the oops dept
There have been plenty of stories of organizations accidentally (or just stupidly) emailing out private information to people. However, they usually just get beat up in the press about it, make a big apology, and it goes away. However, when Georgetown University realized they screwed up, they shut down their entire email system for 14 hours, while they tried to repair the damage. They stopped the message from going out to undergrads, but it had already been delivered to 3,000 grad students. So, they went into each student's account, and replaced the message with a blank email. While some think it was the proper thing to do to prevent the privacy violation, others think it shows the university has too much control over the email system - and worry what they could do in the future.
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Um, too much control? by Jack9 on Feb 7th, 2003 @ 9:41pm
Are they fucking stupid? Of course the university has complete control over their own email system and all email that passes through. IT'S THEIR SYSTEM. I don't want the governor's staff or the mayor's coffee boy in charge of the university email system, I EXPECT THE FUCKING UNIVERSITY TO MAINTAIN COMPLETE CHARGE OF THEIR OWN SYSTEMS.
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No Subject Given by keith knutsson on Feb 9th, 2003 @ 10:54am
it was a wise decision by Georgetown
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Power to do so? by Bryan Price on Feb 9th, 2003 @ 10:22pm
Yeah, I have to say that since it is their system, they have the ability to do with it as they please. It's not a 1st amendment issue, because they are only changing what their e-mail was about. I would not have wanted to be their net admin during this time.
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