UNCW

[alan]

I am currently receiving harassing and threatening emails from several different Yahoo accounts, but the originating IP addresses all trace back to UNCW, where my wife was a tenured professor before we moved to Portland.

Although I do not know for sure who is doing this, I have a few guesses.  And they are professors there, using state time and property to send messages that include allusions to lynchings, black boxes in airplanes, and other disturbing threats.  My wife's name was included in the messages I received yesterday.

Here is what the UNCW IT Security Officer emailed me:

Mr. Cordle,

As the Information Technology Security Officer for the University of North Carolina Wilmington, I conducted an investigation into this matter. Based upon the information you provided to us, no UNCW policies have been violated.  If you feel that a crime has occurred, you can refer this matter to an appropriate law enforcement agency.  If they, in turn, feel that a crime has occurred that warrants further investigation, they would possess subpoena authority to attempt to identify the sender(s) of the email. Please keep in mind, however, the subpoena would be appropriately served on Yahoo as the internet service provider (ISP), and not upon UNCW.

Respectfully,

Zachery S. Mitcham, MSA

IT Security Officer

Information Technology Systems Division

UNC Wilmington (910) 962 3047

"Security is Everyone's Business"

This response after several recent student murders.  If you're interested in more details, visit metafilter.

[poetastin]

Yahoo is an ISP?

[alan]

Yahoo is an ISP?

Yeah and google can make monkeys fly out of my ass!  He's also busy running his other business, so it's hard to keep up with all of the IT acronyms.  Gotta love his web design skills, which give me a glimpse into who we're dealing with here.

Please, please don't subpeona UNCW.  It's Yahoo you want!!!  Yahoo!

I predict UNCW will make him take the fall for this.  They always blame someone else and protect the real perps!

[Wilson]

Yahoo is NOT the ISP.  If you open your full headers on your email message, you will see that Yahoo is the middle-man and the originating ISP is in the mail header.  To say Yahoo is the ISP is to say: I do not really want to take this seriously and I am hoping you do not know any better.

And if a group of idiots are sending you messages from Yahoo, thinking they are covering their trails, then they are so profoundly stupid that it amazes me that they were hired to teach students anything other than the proper position of their drool-cups.

[alan]

Well UNCW was the institution that, when my wife complained a student was being sexually harassed by a professor, told her to have the student call the then department chair, who told the student that no one had been hurt and to keep quiet.

Nice, huh?

A few murders, threats of lynchings, downed planes and black boxes . . . our "investigation has concluded."  

What a scary place!

I wonder how the media outlets will report this one.

[alan]

http://www.uncw.edu/policies/07-100-useelectronicres.htm

I'm just trying to make things easier for the media.

[alan]

from UNCW's counsel:

[Cordle] did just the
opposite. [He] began communicating and responded at least twice
to the individual(s). [He] wrote in one email: "greetings my
cryptic friend. I have been thinking of you"; and ended one of the
emails with "write back when you get a chance."

Um.  I responded because the person was impersonating Dennis Johnson, of MobyLives and I thought that's who I was communicating with.  Is the attorney unable to read?

Finally your characterization of the email content as threatening and
comparing them to campus murders or workplace violence is totally
misplaced and disingenuous at best. We take workplace violence and
threats seriously. Based on the information that we have, there does not
appear to be any crime committed or policy violated.

Unless they are threats made by employees, apparently.  

And again, is it my job to refer the lawyer to the university's policy linked above?

[Krede_the_Mighty]

from UNCW's counsel:

[Cordle] did just the
opposite. [He] began communicating and responded at least twice
to the individual(s). [He] wrote in one email: "greetings my
cryptic friend. I have been thinking of you"; and ended one of the
emails with "write back when you get a chance."

Um.  I responded because the person was impersonating Dennis Johnson, of MobyLives and I thought that's who I was communicating with.  Is the attorney unable to read?

What was the recommended action? I presume something was suggested, apparently not communicating and responding?

Finally your characterization of the email content as threatening and
comparing them to campus murders or workplace violence is totally
misplaced and disingenuous at best. We take workplace violence and
threats seriously. Based on the information that we have, there does not
appear to be any crime committed or policy violated.

Unless they are threats made by employees, apparently.  

And again, is it my job to refer the lawyer to the university's policy linked above?

Police being any help so far?

TGWWK

[alan]

The Wilmington police said I had to report it to the Portland police, who suggested I file a report with the FBI, which I did.  I have also contacted university police with no response.  The IT Security Officer said the investigation has concluded and no crime has been committed, but remember, he doesn't understand what an ISP is, so I wasn't expecting much.

There was no recommended action.  The counsel included the note that I'd responded to two of the emails as a "gotcha."  She called it "interesting" that I had responded.  I find it interesting that UNCW has not evolved in a decade; they still protect the abusers and silence the whistleblowers.

[Wilson]

Uh, you now an outsider, Mr. Cordle. We take care of our own round here.

The NC syndicate is part of the larger Southern syndicate.  They dont take kindly to meddlin strangers who should spend more time worrin bout they own.

And thats pretty much the kind a law they practice down there too.  That and they are well practiced at the law of its everyone else at fault, especially you!

[alan]

I wouldn't be surprised if UNCW allowed a lynching on campus sponsored by a student group.

Here's the latest:

As the Vice Chancellor of Information Technology Systems Division (ITSD), I have always considered customer service, privacy, and protection of individual rights to be high priorities.  I assure you that our network and system processes are and will remain secure.  Zachery Mitcham, our Information Technology (IT) Security Officer, is a consummate professional and is one of the best IT security officers in the nation.

Mr. Mitcham was a decorated military officer in the field of IT security.  He responded professionally to all your calls and investigated in “real-time” your concerns.  He made your investigation his number one priority.  While his conclusions were not satisfactory to you, his integrity and desire to do a good job are unimpeachable. UNCW is fortunate to have him.

I wish you the best as you move forward with the authorities to resolve your complaint.

Dr. Debra Saunders-White

Vice Chancellor for Information Technology

[alan]

I just spoke with IT Security Officer Zachery Mitcham again.  He had a noteably different attitude towards me this time than another time when we spoke and I asked him, "How are you"?  He responded, "I am blessed."  So I'm glad this decorated military officer feels blessed.  I wonder, what would Jesus do?  Apparently nothing.

I received two more emails originating from UNCW today.  When I called Mitcham, he was disinterested.  I said, "the person is sending emails right now and you're telling me you're going to do nothing"?  He said he had done everything he could and my case had been referred to legal counsel.

UNCW students, faculty, and staff: do you care about your safety?

[Wilson]

Just makes yawl wanna go to school at UNCW, donnit?

[Ed Dupree]

Wils, I wish you'd lighten up a little on the crackerphobia. Not every uneducated white southerner is a completely contemptible person. Certainly not on account of the way he or she talks.

Yore good ol' pal,
Ed

[jilly99]

Wow. I work in an University's IT Dept and that is not the response you would get from us. Sorry.