Using information provided by Computing Services, the College has identified the student who infiltrated the BlitzMail system in November and sent a computer virus to other students under the name of "Dartmouth Network Services."
Last term, the individual broke into the College's electronic mail system and sent a program called "FileShare" to other students that made text run backward and caused several computers to crash, according to Nancy Hossfeld, director of user communications
"Whoever sent this was pretending to be someone they weren't and pretending that the file was something that it wasn't," Hossfeld said.
Such an action could violate the College's Computing Code, Dean of Freshman Peter Goldsmith said yesterday.
Although the College is currently investigating the case, Senior Associate Dean of Students Daniel Nelson said he could not comment on the case and would not release the name of the student involved.
Computing Services located the computer used to send the BlitzMail message within 24 hours of the initial complaint, Hossfeld said.
Hossfeld said the electronic mail message was sent by a program that was incorporated into the BlitzMail system. She added that it is usually dificult to track the location of the intial message when the BlitzMail system is not used
"We were lucky and there were a number of factors that made us more confident in our ability to find the source," she added. "These included timing and the way that the message was sent."
Although Computing Services quickly identified the BlitzMail message's source, they did not file a report with the College until January because they were unsure about how to handle the case.
"Computing Services was concerned with what was the correct approach to take," Hossfeld said. "This was a serious attempt at abusing the computing environment."
"We also found afterwards that the same enclosure has been circulating around campus as a joke. We didn't encounter this as a deliberately malicious activity," Hossfeld said.
Goldsmith said Dartmouth was not alone in its problems with computer pranks.
"My general sense is that the problem of computer fraud is happening all over the country and on different campuses," Goldsmith said. "This is naturally going to lead to some kind of abuse."
Earlier this year, someone broke into BlitzMail and sent an electronic mail message to the students of Government 49 informing them that their midterm had been postponed. The message was sent under the name of an administrative assistant in the department. Computing Services has not found the individual responsible for that incident, Hossfeld said.
