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Porn and poem spammers get warnings

By Dylan Freeman-Grist

Several of the students involved in the Oct. 1 massive engineering and architecture email spam prank have been tracked down and issued warnings, according to Ryerson Information Security Officer Mugino Saeki.

The students used email generating site Deadfake.com to create countless messages ready for mass distribution from an account that appeared to belong to engineering communications coordinator Michelle Colasuonno. The messages contained everything from criticisms of faculty to links directing to pornographic web pages.

“If this had been a criminal matter we would have taken it to the next level in terms of investigation and engaged the internet service providers, engaged law enforcement,” said Saeki.

“We would have pursued it to the full length if their was any significant harm.”

Saeki went on to note that the full extent of her office’s response and investigative resources are typically reserved for breeches of highly sensitive information. In instances of practical jokes con- taining no actual breaching or hacking, such as the spam stunt, a “conscientious decision” is typically made to warn students as oppose to completely cracking down on them.

“I think anyone who is on the internet for any period of time knows what internet trolls are like. They hide behind anonymity to spew a lot of very unpleasant language and hateful comments, so unfortunately this is the reality of today,” said Saeki.

Aside from the warnings, Ryerson has now completely blocked any access to Deadfake.com on its server. Extra vigilance measures have also been instituted throughout Ryerson’s email system to track any spam being generated. Further, only permitted accounts may be allowed to email lists such as the one utilized by pranksters.

“I feel as though there should have been a more concrete punishment for them … say email-sending privileges removed for a period of time,” said Joseph Temkov, one of the many engineering-student recipients of the spam mail.

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