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Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master

NRT-0426 US Airbase emails Mistakenly Sent to UK Town Web Site:

A BBC press report claims that confidential US Air Force (USAF) emails - some including flight plans for a presidential visit - mistakenly were sent to a tourism web site. The emails were meant for the US airbase at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, but were sent to a town tourism web site that had a similar address. The USAF said there had been no "verified security breach" and it had advised airmen and other staff to use the correct email address.

Gary Sinnott, of Mildenhall, set up the web site "mildenhall.com" in the late 1990's to promote the town. Since 2001, he has received hundreds of emails meant for people at the airbase, including jokes, spam, personal information, and military information. Sinnott said he contacted the base a number of times, but officials told him not to worry about it. On one occasion, however, he said when he told an official at the base about receiving information about presidential flight plans, the official "went nuts." "That kind of information is not meant to be passed out to Joe Public," Sinnott said. He added that another email he received concerned US "military procedures and tactics" and was marked "destroy by any means to prevent capture."

Sinnott has now decided to take down his web site to avoid receiving these messages. The chief of media relations at RAF Mildenhall said "There has not been any verified security breach that warrants any action." He added: "In 2004, the 100 Communication Squadron advised Sinnott to block unrecognizable addresses from his domain and have an auto-reply sent reminding people of the official Mildenhall domain."

(http://news.bbc.co.uk 04MAR08)

Last Modified: Saturday, 29-Mar-2008 18:46:46 EDT