The e-mail system at Seattle U might not be able to wash mouths out with soap, but it does stop messages that use naughty words from ever reaching their desired destination. While it may keep inboxes clean, the lost e-mails also create confusion.
Abigail Wiechmann, senior criminal justice and forensic psychology major, waited for the arrival of an important e-mail regarding a research study. When it never came, she assumed it was never sent, only to learn that it had been but, for some reason, never arrived.
As it turned out, the study contained terms considered offensive by Seattle U's email system and so it was blocked from her inbox.
She's not the only one who has experienced this problem.
"There have been a few times that my friends have e-mailed me and I never received it," said Alec Unis, senior history and literature major. "I've even missed some meetings at work because, for whatever reason, I never got the e-mail."
What blocks these messages is not the university's anti-spam software, but something else called "the bad word list," a collection of about 40 offensive words that, when used in an e-mail from an outside address, cause the message to be blocked entirely.
"It's an interesting list," said Mark Kawakami, network manager for the Office of Information Technology, OIT. "I've read it once and never need to read it again."
Kawakami explained the list was originally created by the university several years ago to serve as a spam filter. While some e-mails from outside address occasionally get through, most are blocked.
Students never know a message was sent and the senders never know it wasn't received. The e-mail simply disappears.
"It's like a black hole," said Matt Byers, system administrator at OIT. "The e-mail hits the windshield and bounces right off."
Byers explained that the system doesn't send the e-mail back to the sender for fear of returning so many that the school's system would be blocked by other e-mail providers. In essence, it would make Seattle U's system look like a spammer.
The list method has obvious flaws. OIT upgraded to a much more sophisticated anti-spamware program Baracuda - which sends hourly updates about new spam and Trojans - over two years ago. Nevertheless, the bad word list remains in place.
"It's something we've been asked to do," said Matt Eagan, another system administrator. "We'll keep it in place until the school decides they don't need it anymore."
Kawakami said OIT and the university have been seriously considering removing it.
"Obviously the flow of information is being blocked at some point and we'd like to make sure students and staff receive the emails […] they need," he said.
Robert Dullea, vice president for university planning who now supervises OIT, said he was unaware that the list existed until he heard about it from another college, and that the number of people affected by it was probably small.
Some have no qualms with the list remaining. Matthew DeWeese, junior political science major, feels that if students want to use bad language with their friends they should do so with a different e-mail.
"The university system is like a work account," said DeWeese. "You wouldn't use that sort of language at your job, would you?"
Regardless, the list will be removed by the end of this year.
"There may be some increase in the number of spam messages you receive," said Dullea, "but I think that is something our students and staff are ready to accept."
Egan said the amount of spam that makes it through to inboxes once the list system is removed will probably not be very noticeable. However, both he, Byers and Kawakami stress the importance of being able to recognize what is and is not spam.
Over the summer several students and staff members received an e-mail claiming to be from the technology office. The e-mail asked for the receiver's username and password. That should have been a red flag to readers that it was a spam message.
"OIT, the school, your bank, and really any reputable business would never ask you for your information, especially not your password," said Byers.
Messages, like the one sent over the summer, which pretend to be from official offices in order to acquire personal information are called phishing emails, explained Beyers. OIT manages to catch most phishing attempts early, but sometimes not before several people have already replied with their information. Once the spambot acquires a username and password, it uses the e-mail account to send out more messages to other users.
Seattle U receives an average of 15 million spam messages a month. Without the spam filter, students and staff would receive at least 25,000 messages a week. While most spam is blocked, it's impossible to stop all of them. OIT hopes they can lower the number of problems associated with spam by educating people.
"Much like your social security number, your username and password are never something you want to give out over e-mail," said Kawakami.
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