Death By Email Blog

Is De-Duplication Legal?

Many email archiving companies have touted their de-duplication capabilities.  The argument is that substantial savings can be found by saving one copy of a message when there are copies that are identical.  One study from a vendor claims that 80% of all emails are duplicates.

But, when is a duplicate actually a duplicate?  InBoxer believes a duplicate is only a duplicate when it is 100% identical including the meta tags (such as date, time and routing information).  At least one court now seems to agree.

In Nursing Home Pension Fund v. Oracle, a shareholders' class action was brought by purchasers of Oracle Corp. stock against officers of the company and related defendants, The defendants produced more than 1,665 emails to or from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, but that only 15 of those emails were actually identified as having come from Ellison's email box.  Why?  It is not clear.  But, it is possible that Ellison's name appeared in the TO field of an email sent to another recipient.  Did Ellison also get a copy?

The court found spoliation because it thought that it "could have been helpful to plaintiffs to demonstrate that certain e-mails were discovered in Ellison's files; otherwise, for instance, Ellison could argue that he never actually read or received an email that was sent to him, and thus had no knowledge of its contents." (Pennsylvania Law Weekly)

Leonard Deutchman, general counsel and administrative partner of LDiscovery LLC, said in Legal Technology that the ruling does not make sense because the de-duplication logs show what was removed.  He had a lengthy discussion of the topic that is worth reading if you are into these legal issues.

I expect that the fight around de-duplication will grow.  Some email archiving vendors could be at risk if their customers take legal action against their de-duplication practices.  InBoxer strongly believes that only 100% duplicates should be removed and that all companies should be held to that standard.  (More details on de-duplication from Deutchman.)

It's Just Slightly Morbid

In the past, I've reported on services that will send emails on your behalf if you meet your early demise.  Actually, it enables a designated close friend or relative to launch an email that you had previously written -- perhaps to say farewell.  But, what if you are not dead, yet?  (Monty Python Skit)

A new service, appropriately named Slightly Morbid, will help you out.  It is aimed at letting you create an email that a designated party can use to notify your on-line friends of a major problem or disaster that will keep you from making that Facebook posting or responding to that Twitter Tweet.

"At the most basic level, this service is designed to give people a place to consolidate their personal online contacts. Enter email addresses, handles or names if you wish, update them as needed. Once your account is set up, the site will generate a certificate with simple instructions for a trusted third party," the web site claims.  "If there is an emergency, your trusted person can use those instructions to send a notification message, or trigger messages you've written yourself."

When would you every use this service?  The site mentions evacuations and hurricanes.  It could probably be used for any natural disaster in which you want to let a distribution list know that you are OK.  I think that a useful variant would be the ability to launch a block of emails from a wireless device.

Want Palin's Emails? That'll Be $15 Million.

Many states are complaining about the demands of the media for copies of emails as part of freedom of information act requests.  Perhaps they did not realize they are missing a great potential source of revenue.  Alaska has figured it out and the interest in VP nominee, Governor Sarah Palin could add to the coffers.

The Alaska governor's office has quoted prices as high as $15 million for copies of state emails requested by news organizations and citizens, MSNBC reports:

How did the cost reach $15 million? Let's look at a typical request. When the Associated Press asked for all state emails sent to the governor's husband, Todd Palin, her office said it would take up to six hours of a programmer's time to assemble the email of just a single state employee, then another two hours for "security" checks, and finally five hours to search the e-mail for whatever word or topic the requestor is seeking. At $73.87 an hour, that's $960.31 for a single e-mail account. And there are 16,000 full-time state employees. The cost quoted to the AP: $15,364,960.  And that's not including the copying costs.

...

The price quotes reveal that Palin's office has repeatedly tried to charge different news organizations the cost to reconstruct the same e-mail accounts of the governor, her senior staff and other employees. Each time an e-mail is requested, the office quotes the same cost of $960.31 for 13 hours to recover and search each employee's e-mails.

NBC's price quote for e-mails sent to Todd Palin: $15 million.

The AP's price for e-mails between state employees and the campaign headquarters of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain: $15 million.

And the AP again, for e-mails between state employees and the National Park Service (on polar bears, wolves and other topics): $15 million.

The AP's news editor in Anchorage, Mark Thiessen, told msnbc.com he wasn't authorized to say whether the AP, a nonprofit cooperative owned by newspapers, planned to pay the $45 million for e-mails.

You can read all the requests for records, and the responses of Gov. Palin's office in this PDF file.

Hackers Should Never Advertise

If you are a hacker, you should never advertise.  At least, you should never advertise that FBI won't find you.  That just seems like too big of a challenge.  Sort of, like, yelling En Garde! to the Three Musketeers.  Or, as the old Jim Croce song says, "You don't tug on Superman's cape  ... You don't spit into the wind ...You don't pull the mask off an 'ole Lone Ranger."

Well, that is exactly what 19-year-old alleged hacker Josh Holly, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, did.  Using the pseudonym TrainReq, he reportedly broke into the Gmail email account of Disney's Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus and stole pictures of the then 15-year-old Cyrus in the shower, in a T-shirt baring her belly, in her underwear and in a bikini.  (Wired's Threat Leval blog has extensive details about the hack.  It is a fascinating tale that includes his unauthorized access to a MySpace administrative panel where he found passwords, including for Cyrus, stored in cleartext.  If you believe the story, he fooled MySpace into giving him all the information he needed.)

Holly then reportedly posted some of the photos of Cyrus online at digitalgangster.com, after which numerous gossip and celebrity sites published them.  (The photo on the left is from Wired Magazine's Threat Level Blog.) All told, Holly said he stole nearly a dozen pictures, but only published the most provocative ones.  (MTV News)

Here comes the part about tugging on Superman's cape.  Holly started giving interviews about his exploits to other bloggers and media outlets (including this one to KKFR in Phoenix, AZ) and often bragged that authorities would never find him because he moved around so much.

Not much later, the FBI knocked on his door, armed with a dossier of information they'd amassed on his past hacking activities, including the online forums he had frequented and spamming activity he'd been involved in more than two years ago, which he said he'd disclosed to only a few people.

"The problem is that (Holly) truly believed he was untouchable, and unfortunately for him, in 2008, it's that type of reckless thinking that gets people raided," one alleged Hacker wrote. "While most of us have smartened up and left 'hacking' behind, there are always newcomers like (Holly) who learn how to do something destructive and then execute their new found abilities carelessly without fear of repercussion. ... [B]ut whatever here comes his big day, i just hope he doesn't expect to touch a computer for a few years." 

Enterprise Strategies for Information Overload

IBM decided to do an inhouse look regarding information overload and what IBM is doing about it.  (IBM is a part of the Information Overload Research Group.  In full disclosure, so are two companies I work with: InBoxer and Permessa.)  They provide some interesting advice for enterprises on how to handle information overload.  Here are some of their ideas:

Enterprise strategies

1. Answer common customer questions on your Web site using clear and concise language. This will save your customers a lot of time and keep them from pestering you with time-consuming phone calls and e-mails.
2. User-test your intranet. Clean it up so that employees can find information faster, and make the intranet homepage their entry point for keeping up on company news and events.
3. Don't circulate internal e-mail to all employees; put the information on the intranet where people can find it when they need it.
4. Establish a company culture in which it's acceptable not to respond to e-mail immediately. This frees employees from the pressure of incessantly checking e-mail and lets them get more work done.

I also think the whitepaper from Permessa entitled 6 Best Practices That Reduce Email Overload and Costs provides some additional actionable items.  These specific steps, such as controlling the use of reply-to-all work well with the IBM ideas.  (Again, in full disclosure, I contributed to this whitepaper.)

Email from Hell Helps Save Lives

I love it when email can be used for good and not just for evil spam.  In this case, a newly expanded email service can help to save lives and stop an epidemic.

Notifying sexual partners of their potential exposure to a sexually transmitted disease (STD) has been a mainstay of disease prevention and control since the 1930s.  But efforts have been thwarted because many people do not want to face their partner with bad news -- or face the consequences of their actions.

A web-based service from inSPOT allows people to send anonymous (or signed) email post cards to let them know to seek medical attention.  These cards aren't somber.  Some are flirty or a little light hearted.  At least one is in Spanish.  But, they get the news across:

"It's not what you brought to the party, it's what you left with ... I left with an STD. You might have, too. Get checked out soon."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know I had STDs when we were together. You should get tested."

"Who? What? When? Where? It doesn’t matter. I got an STD; you might have it too. Please get checked out."

To date, 30,000 people have sent over 49,500 cards.  It sounds like a lot, but there is a long way to go in order to deal with the 19 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases diagnosed each year (PLOS Medicine).

Since the cards can be anonymous, there is some risk that pranksters will send cards.  "Josh" commented on the L.A. Times web site, "I've personally received two e-cards from this site intended as jokes. And quite upset by it, I emailed the contact address given on the site, but no one ever responded. So I sent another message complaining that their site was being misused, but, again, no response."

But, if the result is even one life saved, I think it is worth the effort.

Creepy Cell Phone Applications

I use my BlackBerry mostly as a phone and for email.  But, I know there are a wide variety of other apps to try.  Some are useful and others are -- well -- time killers.  Today's Wall Street Journal describes the creepiest wireless device application that I have ever heard of.  It is for the new Google G1 Android phone.  I think the WSJ describes it best:

Krystle II: Turns your G1's entire screen into a picture of fur that purrs and vibrates as you touch it. There's no real point, but Krystle II is addictive and strangely comforting during long conference calls.

Scary Email Moments

What do Halloween and a sent email have in common? Both can be equally frightening, according to a press release from Proofpoint.  The release contains what they identified some of the scariest email issues of 2008:

1.) Phishing Fiasco

In September, it was reported that cyber-criminals were launching fake sites for charities and asking unsuspecting consumers for donations to help in the hurricane disaster efforts. With any phishing site, people can be tricked and treated into revealing financial information and often discover the fraud after it is too late. 

2.) Preying on Palin's Email

A hacker breached the personal Yahoo! account of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and revealed portions of its content on a site called Wikileaks. Security experts note that it can be fairly simple for a determined person to hack into a personal email account, but concerns have been raised about Palin using her personal email for business issues. David C. Kernell, son of Tennessee State Representative Mike Kernell, was indicted earlier this month in the case.

3.) Obama's Unsightly Spam

A malicious spam email spread in September claiming to have a link to a sex video of Obama, but instead included spyware to steal sensitive data from the victim's computer.

4.) Emails: Dead and Buried

Oracle Corp. failed to unearth CEO Larry Ellison's emails that were sought as evidence in a class-action lawsuit. According to the US District Judge Susan Illston, Oracle should have figured out a way to comply with the order to produce the information, which was issued in late 2006.

5.) Email Job Elimination

Carat's chief people officer accidentally alerted staffers that their jobs could be in peril by sending an office-wide email only meant for senior management. Additionally, the specifics on the talking points of their restructuring were shared.

6.) Unhealthy News Anchor Obsession

A former news anchor, smitten by his female co-anchor was charged with hacking into her email account 537 times in 146 days, often checking on her 10 times a day or more. He logged in from both home and work and passed on some of the information to a Philadelphia newspaper gossip columnist.

7.) Space Encounters

NASA found a computer virus on a laptop aboard the International Space Station, which carries about 50 computers.

8.) Qualcomm's Email Cemetery

Qualcomm got smacked with an $8.5 million penalty because it bungled its own discovery of email relevant to a patent lawsuit with Broadcom.

9.) Batting Back Backscatter

Stephen Gielda, president of Paketderm, found his servers were being inundated with a tidal wave of backscatter messages. At one point, he was being hit by 10,000 bounce back messages per second.

10.) Angel-O-Lantern

Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo hit reply rather than forward when typing 'disgusting' in response to a customer's email. The media and the investor community noticed Mozilo's response. In fact, one investor on a Web site wrote, "I hope that company gets what they deserve."

CNN Covers Death By Email

CNN.COM included this blog in its story "Experts Reveal Email Nightmares, Safety Tips."  It is also entitled, "OMG -- You Just Hit 'Send' to the Wrong Person."

Much of the work being done to prevent these types of problems is being done by Permessa Corporation.  Permessa's product, Permessa Email Control!, helps to restrict and reduce many of the common mistakes mentioned in the article.

At the risk of quoting myself, the article lists some key safety tips:

But old-fashioned vigilance is probably the best way to avert these snafus in the first place. Roger Matus, CEO of e-mail archiving company InBoxer Inc. and keeper of the blog Death By Email, believes the easiest way to avoid these mistakes is to forget that the "reply all" button even exists. "Simply put, there is rarely a real reason to use it," he says. "Often, when you hit it, you end up e-mailing people who were carbon copied without realizing."

Matus offers the following tips on avoiding e-mail embarrassment:

• Type out the person's full name when addressing your e-mail. If you type just the first few letters and let your e-mail program fill out the rest based on your address book, it could easily misroute your message without your realizing it.

• Double-check the addresses of your intended recipients before you hit "send." Do you really want all the people to get this particular message?

• Be sure to notify your company's legal department if there is any chance that governance, compliance or privacy regulations were violated as a result of something you sent by mistake.

• Immediately notify the person who received the e-mail that it was a mistake and, if possible, ask them not to read the message -- or at least to delete it right away.

Wet 'n No Balls Had Better Be Scared, Very, Very Scared

As the U.S. presidential election gets closer, Americans are rightfully upset with the tone of the campaign.  But, it sometimes helps to remember that things can get raunchy in other parts of the world, too.

"Wet 'n no balls had better be scared, very, very scared," an email from Queensland, Australia Parliament candidate Wendy Richardson that was leaked to The Cairns Post, reads.  "Wet'n no balls" is a reference to the sitting Labor MP Steve Wettenhall. 

"Jack Boots Anna has struck again!" she wrote.  "Jack Boots Anna" is State of Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.

News outlets report that Richardson has apologized.