FL: Typo leads to sensitive state e-mails

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread

A Miami man's spelling mistake during an
Internet search led him to sensitive e-mail
messages sent to state government officials
that had been inadvertently left for public
view on a state Department of Health website.

. . .

Roy Cales, the state's information technology
chief, said Tuesday that Haygood's misspelling
set off ``a strange glitch . . . in the code
that triggered the access'' to what should
have been a private section of the Health
Department computer.

As of late Tuesday, no one was sure exactly
what triggered the glitch or whether a similar
error could allow access to other areas thought
to be private.

. . .

Patchett, a former executive in the state
Department of Environmental Protection, said
he often received e-mail and letters and was
sometimes stunned at how much private information
senders revealed. He said people in general need
to be more careful about what they put in writing,
especially sent over the Internet.

Miami Herald

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), November 05, 2000


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