Ask Internet users what they hate more than anything else online, and invariably the answer will be spam.
I get more spam than most, and I just hit the Junk button for most of it. But when spam comes in with my real name attached, then I give the spammer a few minutes of extra attention. Usually this results in their web hosting and advertising accounts being canceled.
In the case of a spam I received Monday, it might result in someone losing his cushy federal government job.
It appears that on Monday morning someone at the Overseas Security Advisory Council came into work early, and by early I mean six in the morning, sat down at workstation “dsi200w2k3a41,” and started sending spam. The spam is typical of get rich quick schemes, advertising a Web site I won’t link to that wants $44.95 for a copy of the same web site and the ability to send 1,000,000 more spam messages per day — or 2,500,000 per hour, depending on which piece of hype you believe — to rake in $44.95 from hapless Internet users from the buyer’s copy of the site, and so on.
I don’t know what the penalties are, if any, for a federal government employee sending spam from a government computer, but I’m sure there’s a rule somewhere that covers it.
It’s possible that instead of this being an employee actively sending spam from his office computer, that it is instead a Trojan of some kind installed on the workstation sending spam. Though this raises the question of how did such a Trojan get there? Did someone put it there or were the IT staff asleep at the switch?
I contacted OSAC Monday morning and have so far received no response.
OSAC, part of the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, exists “to promote security cooperation between American business and private sector interests worldwide and the U.S. Department of State,” according to its Web site. OSAC should start promoting security on its own internal network.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
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Merlin Silk
Sep 24, 2008
Hi,
this is a good story, but I would not hold my breath that ANYTHING will happen. There is no accountability in our government, especially in the federal one, and the boss of that department was probably the one selling that scheme to all his/her staff to cushion his/her meager government salary.
hmm, does it show that I don’t like government?
Cheers
Merlin
Ryan McGuire
Sep 24, 2008
Getting an incompetant sysadmin fired though, might mean they hire a competent one and make the government that much more efficient. I for one, hating government, am glad that most of government is NOT very efficient.
At the very least though, you’ll waste their time in the hassle of having to go through hiring again :)
Ryan McGuire
Sep 24, 2008
Getting an incompetent sysadmin fired though, might mean they hire a competent one and make the government that much more efficient. I for one, hating government, am glad that most of government is NOT very efficient.
At the very least though, you’ll waste their time in the hassle of having to go through hiring again :)
Merlin Silk
Sep 24, 2008
Well said – let the gov drown in it’s own inefficiency – then at one point we are paying our 80% tax for the privilege to keep our bureaucrats.
But the joy of keeping them should be wearing off pretty quickly and then we just fire them.
What did I hear recently – 60% of the time of IRS employees is spent watching porn? Good, huh – imagine that goes up to 100%!
Those dirty bastards
Sep 24, 2008
They think that they can do whatever the hell they want because, they are the government. IF we get in trouble there is hell to pay. What a huge pile of shit they need to clean up!!
KBCraig
Oct 06, 2008
From my experience, being charged with “misuse of a government computer”, first offense, typically results in a proposal for 3-5 days suspension without pay, and final punishment of 1-3 days off without pay, depending on the nature of the content.
If it’s a silly charge (“Not work related” because it’s an invitation to a baby shower for a co-worker), it might be a verbal reprimand.
If it’s actually something serious, meaning criminal charges are involved, any proposed discipline will wait until the criminal matter is settled. A conviction probably means automatic termination anyway.
Michael Hampton
Oct 06, 2008
Well, I haven’t managed to get any more details, but the spam advertising that particular scheme has stopped. That’s a good sign, I suppose.
Norman Diamond
Oct 14, 2008
In year 2003, the US government’s Department of Energy, Office of Scientific and Technical Information (osti.gov) sent me spam. Next they bounced my spam report because I sent the report to the address that they listed in their ARIN registration.
I’ve also received spams from the governments of Turkey, China, and India.
By the way, here’s a question which is half off-topic. To the left of this comment section is a link to Ron Paul top sites. How did you persuade Ron Paul to run again?