The plot thickens. -----Original Message----- From: Spam Prevention Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Richard D G Cox Sent: Friday, March 22, 2002 3:02 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: BLOCK, MEDIA, MISC: Further Press Release from Battle Creek
This is the text of a further press release issued by the City of Battle Creek just a few minutes ago. Again, I do not speak for Battle Creek but I am happy to relay (!) what they say in the interests of understanding. This release came to me by fax. So far it is not up on the City website. There is a link on the City Manager's page, ostensibly to a copy of their press-release of yesterday, but which actually takes you to their January press release entitled: "Manager Renews Search for New Police Chief" However they still haven't answered the questions I put to them yesterday. ======================================================================== === City of Battle Creek, City Manager's Office - Media Release P O Box 1717, Battle Creek, Michigan 49016 March 22, 2002 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Michelle Reen, Assistant to the City Manager, +1 616 966 3378 (Fax +1 616 966 6654) City Manager Calls for Administrative Review of orbz Investigation BATTLE CREEK, MI - City Manager George Strand has called for a thorough administrative review of the actions taken by employees that eventually led to a major misunderstanding between the City and Ian Gulliver, a 20-year-old administrator of an anti-spam site called orbz.org Mr Gulliver shut down his website, which provided a service to hundreds of system administrators across the country who used his blacklist to block emails from unsecure servers, after a search warrant was issued by the Battle Creek Police Department. The intention of the search warrant was to identify the source of an email that caused a major slowdown to the City's mail server on February 25th, 2002. "At the time that the warrant was issued, police believed they were on the trail of a possibly malicious email author. It turns out however that the author was a young Samaritan providing a valuable service" said Strand. This information helped the City identify major flaws in its system administration. The City was operating an outdated version of Lotus Domino and had not taken steps to correct a weakness in the program that turned orbz's routine test into a major headache for the City's Information Services staff. "We acknowledge that the city needs to do a better job maintaining a responsibly secure site. It is unfortunate that it took a search warrant to understand this", said Strand. "I am requesting a thorough review of this situation and corrective steps will be taken. The City's current operations do not represent the goals and values of my office or this community." Strand has included improving the City's technology savvy among his priorities since he became City Manager on December 17, 2001. "I knew we had some issues to deal with and this situation has only illuminated some of them for me. But I ask the online community to have some patience and I thank those who have taken the time to send us helpful suggestions about our policies and procedures" said Strand. "At this point I just want to reassure those who have been following the case, that I am taking this matter very seriously and, once I have the full information from my staff I will be taking the appropriate action. Strand also said he wants orbz.org supporters to know that at no time was the City considering pressing charges against Mr Gulliver, nor did it ask him to take down the site. "Unfortunately, some comments were made by an employee in the media that were not fully informed. It created the impression that we were treating Mr Gulliver like a criminal. We were attempting to determine the cause of a system slow down, and did suspect that it could be foul play, which any system administrator would take seriously. However now that the source is known we have apologised to Mr Gulliver and urged him to resume his services. It is an unfortunate misunderstanding. <END> 03/22/02 15:42 PST John Tolmachoff IT Manager, Network Engineer 211 E. Imperial Hwy., Suite 106 Fullerton, CA� 92835 714-578-7999, ext. 104 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.reliancesoft.com � Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html to be removed from this list. An Archive of this list is available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
