OT: PHB time...

[Glenn Steen]

On 13/03/07, DAve <dave.list at pixelhammer.com> wrote:
> Kevin Miller wrote:
> > OK, so my boss who is normally an otherwise reasonable guy, calls me
> > into his office and says one of the department heads wants out of office
> > turned on for internet mail.  He knows that people are tarred and
> > feathered for doing that on mail lists, but thinks that the mail lists
> > should be filtering those - that with a short case statement they could
> > easily do that.  I tried to persuade him otherwise, but he's going to
> > poll the other directors and see if it's something they want.  Of course
> > they will, not understanding a broader perspective.  Sigh.
> >
> > It seems like there were other reasons than just list servers that make
> > it a bad idea to have out of office messages turned on but I'm not
> > really sure what they might be.  I suggested that they provide feedback
> > to spammers but he was unconvinced.  So, although it's somewhat OT, I'm
> > asking here because I can't think of a more enlightened group of mail
> > admins; what are some good solid reasons beyond people on list servers
> > hate them, not to publish an out of office reply over the internet?
> >
> > Thanks...
> >
> > ...Kevin
>
> Lots of good reasons, but I lost that battle.
>
> One good dictionary attack (if you don't have a really good, properly
> functioning, intelligent, AR program) can get you blacklisted.  See
> "Joe-Job".
CC... Since the OoO is very likely to be answering to spam, which in
turn will go to either some poor spoofed "sender" or even a spamtrap
or too (just for fun...not), this is a very real risk.
So the question is... Is the non-sensical need to appear "reachable"
is worth the risk of non-service for the organisations mail system.

Having said that... I have to admit that my organisation opted for
this "crucial" feature, over my very strong recomendation to _not_
allow it. Sigh. Some battles are just impossible to win.

Cheers
-- 
-- Glenn
email: glenn < dot > steen < at > gmail < dot > com
work: glenn < dot > steen < at > ap1 < dot > se