Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 09:13:19 -0400 (EDT) From: BCPL.NET SysAdmin To: BCPL.NET News Subject: BCPL.NET NEWS: Mail Bomb Cripples Mail Server ------------------------------ MAIL BOMB CRIPPLES MAIL SERVER ------------------------------ Starting at about 8:45 PM last night (Wednesday, Sept. 6) our mail server received a flood of thousands of identical messages received in quick succession from a mail server in the Czech Republic, all addressed to a single BCPL.NET customer. The system's attempt to write all of those messages to our customer's mail spool file at the same time slowed disk access down dramatically, making it nearly impossible for other customers to retrieve their e-mail. The problem was reported to me at home almost immediately by the Help Desk, and I was able to stop the flow from the Czech server and return the mail system to normal operation by about 9:15 PM. We still don't know why someone in the Czech Republic was mailbombing our customer, or whether it was intentional or inadvertant, but we are investigating. We apologize for the interruption in e-mail service, but it is almost impossible to prevent that sort of thing from happening. My thanks to the Help Desk staff for recognizing the problem and alerting me so quickly! -- BCPL.NET INTERNET SERVICES CONTACTS: ----------------------------------- Web Site: http://www.bcpl.net Administration & Policy: ispadmin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 Sales, Renewals, Account Status: accounts@bcpl.net 410-887-4172 Technical Support (Help Desk): help@bcpl.net 410-887-3297 Usenet News Newsgroup Requests news-admin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 E-Mail & Newsgroup Abuse Reports: abuse@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 Domain Name Service Issues: dnsadmin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 FAX: 410-887-2091