US airbase e-mails go to town web

Source: BBC

Confidential US Air Force (USAF) e-mails, some including flight plans for a presidential visit, have been mistakenly sent to a tourism website.

The e-mails were meant to go to the US airbase at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, via its website.

But instead they went to a town tourism website which had a similar address.

The USAF said there had been no "verified security breach" and it had advised airmen and other staff to use the correct e-mail address.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/suffolk/7277392.stm

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Too busy blocking blogs huh?

...and they told HIM not to worry about it. Many times, from the sounds of it.

Is it any wonder our military is where we get the acronym "SNAFU"?

classified. No big deal.

You are using sarcasm, correct?

It actually said that there had been no "verified security breach"
yet ...

> when he told an official at the base about receiving information about
> presidential flight plans, the official "went nuts".

and

> another e-mail he received was about US "military procedures and tactics".
> "It had the notice 'Destroy by any means to prevent capture'," he said.

And the best part:

> He (Master Sergeant Charles Tubbs, chief of media relations) added:
> "In 2004, The 100 Communication Squadron advised Mr Sinnott to block
> unrecognizable addresses from his domain and have an auto-reply sent
> reminding people of the official Mildenhall domain."

i.e., the USAF "solved" the problem by suggesting that a (UK) citizen
send email to the (USAF/DoD/whoever) person who sent the misdirected
email!

Like I said, "incompetent".

...even after being warned about it over and over again. Only when it finally happened did someone go from being indifferent to alarmed.

Honestly, how difficult would it be to write a little routine to scan outgoing mail for the incorrect domain and trap it?

Incompetent is being kind, I think.