Email problems increase with spoofing campaign

[Guest guest]

 

KD Weber <wvadreamin

 

Sunday, 24 August 2003 2:34

news

 

 

 

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On 8/23/2003 at 12:04 AM CPSC <palestineday wrote:

Hi all, There is a new email spoofing campaign underway against Palestine

activists. " Spoofing " is when someone uses an email client that allows them

to change the " From " option, they then enter your email address and send out

false emails in your name. You can identify spoofed emails by looking at the

extended headers, which will show that the spoofed email

did not originate from the address given. Warning signs: Look out for

" bounce backs " - or failure notices - from emails that you did not send out;

emails from yourself that you did not send out; and multiple emails with the

exact same subject, though originating from different addresses. And of

course, use common sense, if you receive an email from someone you

know that seems very out of character, its probably a fake. This can be a

real problem. Back in February we were targeted during the massive spoofing

campaign conducted by settlers via PalNet (the IDF closed the PalNet

facilities, but left the servers up and operating without

supervision, allowing Israeli settlers to hack it and use it for their

campaign - this was tracked by fellow victims at the U. of Iowa to a series

of Israeli phone numbers). We were receiving roughly a thousand " bounce

backs " a day. For those of you who know Prof. Boyle at Columbia,

he received some 30,000 " bounce backs " in one day. ............ However,

spoofing is not a crime - we back during the settler campaign we asked the

FBI and others to check into it, but they responded no crime was being

committed. Luckily this campaign is very amateur compared to the one I

referenced above. Also be aware of virus bearing emails that are part of

this

campaign. Do not open any .pif files as they can hide executables. The two

we've repeatedly been sent were entitled " Movie0045.pif " and " details.pif " -

though I haven't opened them to examine the contents. These files may change

names, so be wary of opening any .pif or .src files (these file extensions

will allow embedded .exe files, executables). Also, at least here, we

received several different emails containing the same attachments from

different addresses - a good warning sign. Also, the HT Times forwarding is

also being circulated widely and leads to

a cascade of pornography. John S.---CPSC - Colorado Palestine Solidarity

Campaign

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http://www.rense.com/general40/whitehouse.htm

White House Told EPA to Lie About Air Quality

WASHINGTON (AP) -- At the White House's direction, the Environmental

Protection Agency gave New Yorkers misleading assurances that there was no

health risk from the debris-laden air after the World Trade Center collapse,

according to an internal inquiry. President Bush's senior environmental

adviser on Friday defended the White House involvement, saying it was

justified by national security. The White House " convinced EPA to add

reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones " by having the National

Security Council control EPA communications in the wake of the Sept. 11

terror attacks, according to a report issued late Thursday by EPA Inspector

General Nikki L. Tinsley. " When EPA made a Sept. 18 announcement that the

air was 'safe' to breathe, the agency did not have sufficient data and

analyses to make the statement, " the report says, adding that the EPA had

yet to adequately monitor air quality for contaminants such as PCBs, soot

and dioxin. In all, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the

attacks and four more by the end of 2001 reassuring the public about air

quality. But it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined that air

quality had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels ó well after respiratory

ailments and other problems began to surface in hundreds of workers cleaning

dusty offices and apartments. The day after the attacks, former EPA Deputy

Administrator Linda Fisher's chief of staff e-mailed senior EPA officials to

say that " all statements to the media should be cleared " first by the

National Security Council, which is Bush's main forum for discussing

national security and foreign policy matters with his senior aides and

Cabinet, the inspector general's report says. Approval from the NSC, the

report says, was arranged through the White House Council on Environmental

Quality, which " influenced, through the collaboration process, the

information that EPA communicated to the public through its early press

releases when it convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete

cautionary ones. " For example, the inspector general found, EPA was

convinced to omit guidance for cleaning indoor spaces and tips on potential

health effects from airborne dust containing asbestos, lead, glass fibers

and concrete. James Connaughton, chairman of the environmental council,

which coordinates federal environmental efforts, said the White House

directed the EPA to add and delete information based on how it should be

released publicly. He said the EPA did " an incredible job " with the World

Trade Center cleanup. " The White House was involved in making sure that we

were getting the most accurate information that was real, on a wide range of

activities. That included the NSC - this was a major terrorist incident, "

Connaughton said. " In the back and forth during that very intense period of

time, " he added, " we were making decisions about where the information

should be released, what the best way to communicate the information was, so

that people could respond responsibly and so that people had a good relative

sense of potential risk. "

Andy Darrell, New York regional director of Environmental Defense, an

advocacy group, said the report is indicative of a pattern of White House

interference in EPA affairs. " For EPA to do its job well, it needs to be

allowed to make decisions based on the science and the facts, " he said.

Marianne L. Horinko, EPA's acting administrator, said the White House's role

was mainly to help the EPA sift through an enormous amount of information.

" We put out the best information we had, based on just the best data that we

had available at the time, " said Horinko, who headed the agency's Office of

Solid Waste and Emergency Response, which oversaw the World Trade Center

environmental monitoring and cleanup. " And it was using our best

professional judgment; it was not as a result of pressure from the White

House, " she said. " The White House's role was basically to say, 'Look, we've

got data coming in from everywhere. What benchmarks are we going to use, how

are we going to communicate this data? We can't have this Tower of Babel on

the data.' " The EPA inspector general recommended that EPA adopt new

procedures so its public statements on health risks and environmental

quality are supported by data and analysis. Other recommendations include

developing better procedures for indoor air cleanups and asbestos handling

in large-scale disasters.