E-mail spammers use research topics for bait

Mark Leininger

E-mail scams are exploiting scientific advances. The text below was used to spam Fermilab employees and users this week. The text originated from a legitimate message from a university research professor. Unknown to the researcher, spammers combined his text with an attachment that contains malware and sent the message to a large number of indivduals at Fermilab. Fortunately, no one opened the attachment since the research topic in this case (environmental engineering) was not related to high-energy physics.

If the topic of this message had been something related to the LHC or one of the Run II experiments, or anything relevant to high-energy or astrophysics, someone would likely have opened the attachment and ended up with an infected machine.

The circulated infected e-mail text read:

Dear all,

Attached find two ES+T papers I've done using Chinese input-output models. We (the group on the China paper) have two other papers under review on China IO as well, one on exports and climate and another on long-term determinants of growth in CO2 emissions (from 1980 to 2030). This can hopefully give you an idea of the capabilities of what we have right now. We're absolutely interested in furthering these models with better data.

Don't fall prey to spammers. You are the laboratory's most important line of defense. Please use your common sense, intuition and training to help detect these kinds of exploits. Remember that spammers can easily craft e-mail to appear as though it was sent by someone you know or from a list that you subscribe to.

In the case mentioned above, the spammers spoofed the researcher's e-mail address. The researcher received about 100 undeliverable error messages the first day of the scam, and more than a few complaints that he didn't deserve. If you reply to messages from senders you don't recognize, they will know your e-mail address is valid and you will likely receive more spam. If anything about the message doesn't seem right, don't click on links and don't open attachments.

Avoid reading e-mail with html and images displayed inline by default. These messages can cause an infection if the html code or the image contain malware. If you receive e-mail that contains html or images, you can turn on the option to display them after you are confident of the sender's identity.

If anything happens that causes you to believe your machine may have been infected, please contact your system administrator. If they are not readily available, call the Helpdesk at x2345 and report the incident so computer security members can check your machine.

If you receive spam, please don't report it as a computer security incident (unless you have some reason to believe it has infected your machine). You cannot stop spam, but you can use tools to help reduce the amount received. The laboratory has a spam-tagging utility based on open source software called SpamAssassin. You can find instructions on how to configure and use it with e-mail clients here. You can also "teach" SpamAssassin whether e-mail is or isn't spam.

-- Mark Leininger, computer security manager

Radar gun for science

On Wednesday and Thursday, a film crew working for National Geographic visited Fermilab to interview scientists and to film a demonstration that will help explain what "redshift" is. Pioneer Productions contacted the City of Batavia Police Department and recruited Detective Shawn Mazza (right) to come to Fermilab and to demonstrate the use of a radar gun. The device bounces electromagnetic waves off cars and records the resulting shift in wavelength to determine the speed of cars. In analogy, the measurement of wavelength shift-redshift-of light waves emitted by celestial objects reveals the speed at which these objects are moving away from Earth. The film, tentatively named "The Big Bang," focuses on the evolution of the early universe. It will air some time next year.

Inspired student donates Wilson Hall artwork

Tyler Banas, a 17-year-old senior from Burlington Central High School, poses with his drawing of Wilson Hall. Banas donated his drawing to Fermilab. It now hangs in the Office of Communication.

When Tyler Banas needed to draw a piece of architecture for his art class, the 17-year-old Burlington Central High School student immediately knew what to draw.

While other students agonized over the assignment, Banas carefully sketched Wilson Hall. The building's cathedral style architecture attracted Banas when he first visited Fermilab a year ago.

"I like it because it is really open," he said of the building.

Banas used a micro-pen to make the drawing, which took him 20 hours. A few months ago, he donated his drawing to Fermilab. It now hangs in the Office of Communication.

A lively teen with unruly hair and an easy smile, Banas fell in love with Fermilab when he came to the laboratory in the spring of 2007. He was part of the laboratory's Saturday Morning Physics program, where scientists teach students the basic concepts and experimental techniques of particle physics.

"Fermilab is the best kept secret. It has a different culture," Banas said.

Next year the science lover plans to attend Grinnell College, a small liberal arts college in Iowa, where he will major in physics, neuroscience or philosophy.

"I love the basic questions, such as why we are here," he said.

-- Rhianna Wisniewski