New College students have received “amusing and preposterous” emails claiming to be from their Dean and Warden.
The first email, sent to the JCR on the 8th March, told students, “Over the course of Hilary Term, I have been playing Call Of Duty: Black Ops on my PS3. I have now reached level 50 and unlocked most of the guns and attachments. My PSN name is ‘newcollegewarden’, which I inherited from Alan Ryan [the previous warden].
“If any junior members of College also play COD online, could they addme as a friend so that we can play a Team Deathmatch together?”
When contacted by Cherwell, Warden Curtis Price said that he had never played the game, calling it “an age/generation thing”.
He added that the only reply he had received had been from a student assuring him that the email was fake, as “the system I was claiming to use was out of date”.
Price commented, “I’m reassured that the JCR do not seem that gullible but must also confess to being slightly disappointed that absolutely no one wanted to join the Warden in a leisure activity. Perhaps rounders later this term?”
The second email, pretending to be Dean Michael Burden, was a royal wedding-themed poem sent on the 30th April, bemoaning the fact that “the Dean’s invitation was late.”
Burden said, “The content of the emails – only two in two terms – has been amusing and preposterous. The principle is of some concern and we would not wish it occur on a more frequent basis, and in a way that impedes the College’s business.’
When asked why he had not sent a retraction email out to the JCR, Burden explained, “I trust they are intelligent enough to ignore them.” He also called the few responses he had received “whimsical”.
One of the Dean’s music students, choral scholar Ben Sheen, told Cherwell, ‘The Warden’s email was funny, but then it was obviously not from him. Michael’s, though, really could have been real – after all, we did spend a lot of time in tutes last term talking about what Kate’s dress might look like.
“But then I realised he’s probably too busy playing croquet with the second years to have written all that.’
Andy Hood, New’s JCR President, commented, “On the emails, we’re grateful for the amusement they’ve provided, and glad that the Warden and Dean have taken them in good humour.”
Both the Warden and Dean did however confirm that they were looking into securing their IT systems.
Price told Cherwell, “I immediately informed our Head of IT and am satisfied that he, with the cooperation and support of OUCS, took swift, appropriate measures to prevent this happening again.
“But a delicate balance has to be struck: if a firewall is made too strong, it might prevent other, legitimate emails from being sent and received…However, I would not be in the slightest surprised if such a nuisance happened again.
“No email system is completely secure and, when very clever people are gathered together, there’s a chance that someone will get up to mischief. If that mischief violates University IT regulations, disciplinary action will follow.”
When asked how the emails were sent, Price added, “the email in question was not sent from within the College; whoever sent it connected directly into the mail transport agent the university runs at OUCS….This loophole has now been closed”.
