Anonymous email messages prompt investigation
0 Comments Published by Pioneer Staff on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 9:43 PM.
Hackers access phone company computers, send fake emails
By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer
On Saturday evening, an anonymous party used a Molalla Pioneer e-mail address to send an unauthorized message to hundreds of people in the Molalla community making allegations of mismanagement in the leadership of Molalla Communications Company.
The email, which led off with the statement “MCC board members negligent, new board members needed ASAP — it’s time for a total change,” was discovered by MCC staff on Sunday.
MCC president and CEO Steve Loutzenhiser said he believes the sender of the e-mail logged into an MCC member’s e-mail account without authorization and changed the reply address to that of the Molalla Pioneer before sending the message.
Molalla Pioneer Editor Joe Wilson said the email messages did not come from the newspaper or anyone who works there.
Loutzenhiser said, “I believe somebody logged in as somebody else and I believe those actions were potentially criminal.”
He declined to say whose e-mail address the sender used to log in.
After logging in and changing the reply-to address to pioneer@eaglenewspapers.com, the sender attempted to distribute the message to several hundred people, although MCC’s spam filters prevented some of the e-mails from being sent, Loutzenhiser said.
He said he was unsure where the sender got the list of e-mails from, but that to his knowledge, all the recipients were MCC customers.
On Monday morning, MCC staff also discovered that there had been a disruption in the company’s internet service.
Loutzenhiser said the connection with two of MCC’s major internet providers was broken. The problem was remedied by switching to a third provider and internet service was restored within a half hour.
“We don’t have any idea if (the disruption in service) was related to the e-mails at all, but it’s unusual for two providers to be down at the same time,” Loutzenhiser said.
The e-mail sent on Saturday, which called for the removal of the entire MCC board of directors and the company’s senior management team, and alleged unfair hiring and firing practices within the company.
“This year alone six employees voluntarily left and seven were fired,” the letter said. “Most were fired under fabricated performance allegations.”
MCC human resources director Christine Cline said those numbers were not correct, but for confidentiality reasons, MCC management declined to give the actual number of employees who had left or been fired.
The e-mail went on to allege favoritism in hiring decisions and in determining salaries within the company.
“(The e-mail) was a violation of employees’ privacy and was completely inappropriate,” Loutzenhiser said.
Cline said the company follows the hiring guidelines outlined in its employee manual.
MCC management did not provide a copy of the manual and was unable to confirm or deny other figures cited in the e-mail concerning the salaries of MCC senior management, due to confidentiality concerns.
Cline noted that in an employee satisfaction survey sent out on April 3, 98 percent of MCC’s 41 regular employees said they were satisfied with their compensation and benefits.
“We do care about providing a good place to work,” Loutzenhiser said. “ … This (e-mail) is taking our resources away from doing what our community really needs.”
As of press time, Loutzenheiser said MCC had not contacted law enforcement but was working with a forensics expert to determine the source of the e-mail. He said the company might consider filing a civil suit and criminal charges at a later date.
The MCC management could not say who they believed might be the source of the e-mail.
However, vice president of marketing and member relations Chris Michalopoulos said, “If you look at the tone of the letter it seems like an ex-disgruntled employee.”
He added, “Not everybody likes change, and even though the benefits to the community are so apparent, some people will fight it.”
The e-mail was sent out a week before MCC’s annual membership meeting, scheduled for Friday evening. More than 1,300 people are expected to attend.
By Abby Sewell
Molalla Pioneer
On Saturday evening, an anonymous party used a Molalla Pioneer e-mail address to send an unauthorized message to hundreds of people in the Molalla community making allegations of mismanagement in the leadership of Molalla Communications Company.
The email, which led off with the statement “MCC board members negligent, new board members needed ASAP — it’s time for a total change,” was discovered by MCC staff on Sunday.MCC president and CEO Steve Loutzenhiser said he believes the sender of the e-mail logged into an MCC member’s e-mail account without authorization and changed the reply address to that of the Molalla Pioneer before sending the message.
Molalla Pioneer Editor Joe Wilson said the email messages did not come from the newspaper or anyone who works there.
Loutzenhiser said, “I believe somebody logged in as somebody else and I believe those actions were potentially criminal.”
He declined to say whose e-mail address the sender used to log in.
After logging in and changing the reply-to address to pioneer@eaglenewspapers.com, the sender attempted to distribute the message to several hundred people, although MCC’s spam filters prevented some of the e-mails from being sent, Loutzenhiser said.
He said he was unsure where the sender got the list of e-mails from, but that to his knowledge, all the recipients were MCC customers.
On Monday morning, MCC staff also discovered that there had been a disruption in the company’s internet service.
Loutzenhiser said the connection with two of MCC’s major internet providers was broken. The problem was remedied by switching to a third provider and internet service was restored within a half hour.
“We don’t have any idea if (the disruption in service) was related to the e-mails at all, but it’s unusual for two providers to be down at the same time,” Loutzenhiser said.
The e-mail sent on Saturday, which called for the removal of the entire MCC board of directors and the company’s senior management team, and alleged unfair hiring and firing practices within the company.
“This year alone six employees voluntarily left and seven were fired,” the letter said. “Most were fired under fabricated performance allegations.”
MCC human resources director Christine Cline said those numbers were not correct, but for confidentiality reasons, MCC management declined to give the actual number of employees who had left or been fired.
The e-mail went on to allege favoritism in hiring decisions and in determining salaries within the company.
“(The e-mail) was a violation of employees’ privacy and was completely inappropriate,” Loutzenhiser said.
Cline said the company follows the hiring guidelines outlined in its employee manual.
MCC management did not provide a copy of the manual and was unable to confirm or deny other figures cited in the e-mail concerning the salaries of MCC senior management, due to confidentiality concerns.
Cline noted that in an employee satisfaction survey sent out on April 3, 98 percent of MCC’s 41 regular employees said they were satisfied with their compensation and benefits.
“We do care about providing a good place to work,” Loutzenhiser said. “ … This (e-mail) is taking our resources away from doing what our community really needs.”
As of press time, Loutzenheiser said MCC had not contacted law enforcement but was working with a forensics expert to determine the source of the e-mail. He said the company might consider filing a civil suit and criminal charges at a later date.
The MCC management could not say who they believed might be the source of the e-mail.
However, vice president of marketing and member relations Chris Michalopoulos said, “If you look at the tone of the letter it seems like an ex-disgruntled employee.”
He added, “Not everybody likes change, and even though the benefits to the community are so apparent, some people will fight it.”
The e-mail was sent out a week before MCC’s annual membership meeting, scheduled for Friday evening. More than 1,300 people are expected to attend.
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