Tuesday, November 04, 2008

'Democracy in Action' does not mean 'hack our listservs'

A succession of three emails from the Provost of George Mason. First:

Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:41:05 -0500
From: Office of the Provost
Subject: Additional Info on Election Day
To: ANNOUNCE04-L@mail04.gmu.edu

To the Mason Community:

I hear some troubling rumors, so here are a couple of facts: 1. The election is Nov. 4, for all political parties. The notion that one party votes Nov. 5 is UNTRUE. 2. It is also UNTRUE that any student jeopardizes financial aid by voting.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost


Then:

Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:16:42 -0500
From: Office of the Provost
Subject: Election Day Update
To: ANNOUNCE04-L@mail04.gmu.edu

To the Mason Community:

Please note that election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost


Finally:

Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:08:21 -0500
From: Office of the Provost
Subject: Urgent Voting Information
To: PROVOSTOFFICE-L@mail04.gmu.edu

Dear Colleagues,

It has come to my attention early this morning that a message was hacked into the system fraudulently stating that election day has been moved. I am sure everybody realizes this is a hoax, it is also a serious offense and we are looking into it. Please be reminded that election day is today, November 4th.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost


I spent exactly 30 seconds looking at the headers of the second message and found:

Received: from m154.prod.democracyinaction.org ([8.15.20.154])
by ironport2.gmu.edu with ESMTP; Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:16:42 -0500
Received: from [10.15.20.114] ([10.15.20.114:39637] helo=web4.mcl.wiredforchange.com)


Apparently someone at Democracy In Action in DC wants to keep our browner students away from the polls today? Don't they know Mason is a commuter school?

1 comment:

ernie said...

There is always the possibility that someone cracked the Democracy in Action box . . . though I think that's dubious . . . .