back to article Exam board in 'send all' fail: Hands up who knows what the BCC button is for?

Exam board OCR has been caught red-faced in a schoolboy email error involving 900* of its maths markers. In a screenshot of the email seen by The Register, the body sent out an invitation to all its A Level maths markers to apply to mark its module next year. It said: "Can you please let me know if you are still interested in …

  1. Paul Crawford Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Idiots

    Also did no one explain that you cant "recall" an email. At most you can ask your own exchange server to remove it, but that counts for SFA once its left your internal system.

    1. Lee D Silver badge

      Re: Idiots

      The number of times I've had to explain this.

      And, no, not every system will send read-receipts, and certainly not any I'm in charge of by default even if they are capable.

      Don't even get me started on "I got a bounceback - did my email get sent properly?" or the myriad reasons that a email might not arrive that have NOTHING to do with our IT or whether things our end are working.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Trollface

        Re: Idiots

        USENET CANCEL MESSAGES! THEY WERE A THING, ONCE.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Idiots

        I once had a support call from a guy saying that the ends of all his incoming emails were getting cut off part way through. So I got to his desk and he showed me the poblem, and then explained to him what the scrollbar at the right of the preview pane was for. Consider your users to be highly sophisticated.

    2. This Side Up

      Re: Idiots

      Yes, but not just the excchange server. I remember somebody sending me a snottygram at work and then sending three or four recall messages, all of which I received. I was using Netscape Communicator on my PC and not the approved Outlook. I had a good chuckle.

      My usual reaction to a recall message was to reply saying "Yes of course you can have it back. Here it is." with the offending message attached.

  2. Chris Miller

    What would Jesus do?

    He among you that hath never sent an email to the wrong recipient, let him first cast a stone.

    (Of course, the big guy would have got St Matthew to configure some DLP software on the mailserver.)

    1. MassiveBob

      Re: What would Jesus do?

      Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

      - IT Engineer

      1. Mark 85

        Re: What would Jesus do?

        Give your heart to God. The rest of you belongs to me --- BOFH

    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: What would Jesus do?

      Unless you useth a loop capable script for sending mail messages, be-eth you gone.

      Bayeux_Tapestry.jpg

    3. david 12 Silver badge

      Re: What would Jesus do?

      I've made mistakes before. But Iwhen I do so, I don't qualify my apology by saying that it really doen't matter anyway:

      “We apologise for not obscuring email addresses on an email which was sent to a closed community of around 900 trusted teacher examiners."

    4. Mutton Jeff

      Re: What would Jesus do?

      He'd be cross and crucify the fekkers

  3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    A while ago I had an email like that from someone I'd corresponded with a year or two earlier. Apparently some people from her address book had been spammed with one of those "help I'm stranded in foreign parts" scams. She wasn't sure who'd been spammed so she sent the email out to everyone on her list, about 200 addresses IIRC. I wrote back to her to advise her how to do it properly next time.

    Oh dear, I've just remembered, I forgot to include her in my change of address emails earlier this year. What a shame.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Just An Oversight...

      "Oh dear, I've just remembered, I forgot to include her in my change of address emails earlier this year. What a shame."

      Don't beat yourself up over it.

      I'm sure she hasn't noticed, what with all of her Nigerian investment correspondence.

  4. John Miles 1

    Happens all the time - but could mail systems help

    I've been a recipient of long Cc: lists from well meaning senders, and occasionally done this kind of thing by accident ( though not on that scale ).

    In this spam/phishing era perhaps mail programs could help by adding a few more functions and checking

    e.g.

    - Have a 'Send with recipients hidden' button to make it easy/obvious ( though same functionality as Bcc)

    - Have a check that prompts 'Did you really mean to send this to 100 visible recipients' ( where the limit 100 or whatever is user configurable).

    1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Re: Happens all the time - but could mail systems help

      I have not personally tried it, but you could consider this:

      https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/thunderbird/addon/use-bcc-instead/

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Happens all the time - but could mail systems help

      Exactly - this happens all the time, was it worth an article?!

  5. StephenTompsett

    Why don't more email systems default to using BCC as the addressing mode?

    1. Chris Miller

      Because for most purposes it's a bit 'sneaky'. I once had a psycho boss who would BCC emails to his boss, HR, anyone he thought might be useful. Shame he was too thick to realise we ran the server and could see exactly what he was up to.

      1. StephenTompsett

        I said 'default', the safer option if you regularly send emails to more than one person,

        You just have to make a positive decision to change the address mode to TO:, after which action you can't really claim that you did it accidentally.

        1. Intractable Potsherd

          Nope - default should be "Reply". It is much easier to realise that you left someone off the list and send a group reply later than to "recall" a message sent to the wrong people.

    2. edge_e
      Unhappy

      It seems to me that outlook deliberately makes it hard to use it

      1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        No, that's a feature.

        1. AMBxx Silver badge

          BCC not always helpful

          If you're emailing a bunch of people and want them to reply to the same group of people, bcc doesn't work.

          That said, why can't ReplyAll be the default?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: BCC not always helpful

            "why can't ReplyAll be the default?"

            It must be at our company.

            Every mass-email from management is followed by a tsunami of mass-replies.

  6. edge_e
    Facepalm

    Does anyone else wince when they see this phrase?

    “We take the protection of personal data very seriously. A full review of our procedures has been launched and measures will be put in place to make sure this does not happen again.”

    1. Fred Dibnah

      Re: Does anyone else wince when they see this phrase?

      Yes indeed, because we all know what it really means:

      We do not take the protection of personal data at all seriously. A superficial review of our procedures has been launched and no measures will be put in place to make sure this does not happen again.

      FTFThem

      1. DiViDeD

        Re: Does anyone else wince when they see this phrase?

        " A superficial review of our procedures has been launched and.." will provide us with the perfect pretext to fire anyone on the IT team who's been annoying us by repeatedly pointing out our email deficiencies.

        TFTFY

    2. A K Stiles

      Re: Does anyone else wince when they see this phrase?

      It mostly make me think that, after some serious discussion between non-technical management types, possibly over several lunches (on expenses of course), they'll publish an internal policy that all emails sent outside the company should be sent individually, by hand, to each address...

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Does anyone else wince when they see this phrase?

      A full review of our procedures has been launched and measures will be put in place to make sure this does not happen again

      Yes. "We're sorry that we accidentally set fire to the curtains and the whole house burned down, we are putting measures in place that this does not happen again" - well, yes numpty, BUT IT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED, so how are you going to fix that? You can't unsend that data, and if that list gets abused you are responsible for it. Morons. I hope you get fined something painful.

    4. Graham Marsden
      Coat

      Re: Does anyone else wince when they see this phrase?

      Ah, but they're the Exam Board, so you *know* that "Lessons Have Been Learned"!

    5. Chris Miller

      Re: Does anyone else wince when they see this phrase?

      Very much the same as hearing "your call is important to us" after you've been on hold for 5 minutes, to which the only possible answer is:

      No it bloody isn't, otherwise you'd pay for sufficient agents to answer your calls in a reasonable amount of time, you cheapskates.

    6. Anonymous IV

      Re: Does anyone else wince when they see this phrase?

      Indeed I did - it wasn't a 'phrase' but a couple of sentences.

      The text is seen so often that it could be regarded as 'boiler-plate'...

    7. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Does anyone else wince when they see this phrase?

      "We take the protection of personal data very seriously."

      And no doubt your phone call is important to them.

      1. Mark 85

        Re: Does anyone else wince when they see this phrase?

        Only as long at it "unlocks shareholder value".

    8. Captain DaFt

      Re: Does anyone else wince when they see this phrase?

      “We take the protection of personal data very seriously. A full review of our procedures has been launched and measures will be put in place to make sure this does not happen again.”

      That always parses to me as: "We fucked up, we don't care. Here's some waffle to shut you up about it."

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Does anyone else wince when they see this phrase?

        Very mission-oriented, if not outcome-driven.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: UNSUBSCRIBE

    >>> Take me off this mailing list immediately!!!

    >> Stop replying you idiots

    >Disregard that, I suck cocks

    Ah, I love a good email storm

  8. sysconfig

    Standard excuse, and all is well...

    “We take the protection of personal data very seriously. A full review of our procedures has been launched and measures will be put in place to make sure this does not happen again.”

    You seem to hear this phrase almost daily in either the same words or minor variations. It means fuck-all.

    1. Robert Moore

      Re: Standard excuse, and all is well...

      >> You seem to hear this phrase almost daily in either the same words or minor variations. It means fuck-all.

      Or at most it means someones secretary is about to get laid off.

      1. Commswonk

        Re: Standard excuse, and all is well...

        Or at most it means someones secretary is about to get laid off.

        FTFY

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Standard excuse, and all is well...

      You seem to hear this phrase almost daily in either the same words or minor variations. It means fuck-all.

      I think it means they're all using the same PR agency, one which sucks at recycling boilerplate..

      1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Re: Standard excuse, and all is well...

        Nah, they just g00gle for it, plenty of templates to choose from...

  9. psychonaut

    “We take the protection of ...blah blah

    very seriously. so seriously in fact, that we've literally just fucked up and done it. its possibly not the first time, but who can tell because we have absolutely no way of knowing or auditing this stuff and the kind of people we let near this data have a level of understanding of using an email program no greater than a lemur. anyways, heres some words that we made up over lunch that sounded good to help you feel better

    “We take the protection of personal data very seriously. A full review of our procedures has been launched and measures will be put in place to make sure this does not happen again.”

    hope this helps! may the seed of your loin be fruitfull in the belly of your woman. Neil.

    1. VinceH
      Thumb Up

      Re: “We take the protection of ...blah blah

      Thumbs up for the Young Ones reference.

      1. Peter Kavanagh.
        Happy

        Re: “We take the protection of ...blah blah

        Boom shankah!

  10. Mr Dogshit

    Don't worry

    Be MAPI

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well at least it wasn't the Pullman Bedbug Letter that went out.

  12. Putters

    CC and BCC

    Funny how we still use CarbonCopy and BlindCarbonCopy ... surely it should be EC (Email/Electronic - take your pick) Copy ?

    1. skswales

      Re: CC and BCC

      It reminds you of all the carbons that are produced in shuffling the electrons back and forth

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: CC and BCC

      European Commission Copy??

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: CC and BCC

        GCHQC - Oh, that would be redundant. Or recursive. Or something.

        Come to think of it, would copying in GCHQ produce a recursive and infinite email storm and take out the entire worlds email system? The email equivalent of Googling Google?

    3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: CC and BCC

      "surely it should be EC (Email/Electronic - take your pick) Copy ?"

      EC & Dummy's EC

  13. badger31

    I can one-up this.

    I used to do freelance IT work for an SMB. A manager decided it would be a good idea to to send a charity fund raiser email to their customers (without consulting the boss). The manager did this using the company customer management system. The CMS integrated with Outlook to send the bulk email (1000s of recipients) by putting all the email addresses into the 'to' field. This caused all kinds of trouble.

    First of all, the 'to' field was overloaded, so the email was malformed and should have been rejected by 1: The CMS, 2: Outlook, 3: Exchange server, 4: inbound mail servers. The exchange server got stuck in a loop constantly trying to resend a malformed email, with many of the recipients receiving the email multiple times, along with a list of everyone else's email address. Many of the email addresses were out of use or had some kind of automated response, causing a deluge of incoming mail (along side all the customer complaints and malformed email responses). That message was ridiculously hard to exorcise from the Exchange sever - it just would give up.

    When the dust settled, there was much groveling to do. This was a data security company, so they lost quite a lot of custom because of this. Needless to say, said manager was out the door shortly after.

    1. Toltec

      Re: I can one-up this.

      "Needless to say, said manager was out the door shortly after."

      Quite lenient really, obviously did not get the BOFH to handle the severance package.

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: I can one-up this.

        "obviously did not get the BOFH to handle the severance package."

        Obviously didn't get the BOFH to handle the mail server - preferably at the same time. Danger, falling mail servers can seriously damage your health.

    2. Named coward

      Re: I can one-up this.

      There's no such limit that would make the email malformed (but the SMTP server can have built in limits which are supposed to return an error). You might have encountered the bug which also caused this: http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2004/04/08/109626.aspx

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I can one-up this.

        There's no such limit that would make the email malformed (but the SMTP server can have built in limits which are supposed to return an error).

        Did you not read? It involved AND Outlook AND Exchange. Of course that will screw up, it is barely able to handle normal email.

        Bonus questions:

        1- did this happen in an EU country? Did people complain about using their email address for marketing without having given explicit permission?

        2 - WTF is a data security company doing using Microsoft software?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fine under the Data Protection Act

    I know of one organisation that has been fined under the DPA for revealing everyone's email addresses by not using BCC. Doesn't matter that it was en error, people too quick to click!

  15. MR J

    In dealing with several scout groups in the past I can tell you that most of the north west scout leaders have seen my email address. This was the best way in the past for people to harvest email addresses for malware/dos/bad stuff. I have even seen people install malware because the email was sent to "other" people they know, and they were sure that 7 or 8 people all getting the same email must mean it is okay.

    Personally, I wish the CC field would be dropped completely and only BCC would remain!

  16. Naselus

    Personally, I'm glad to see that the ex-Head of Data Security at Talk Talk has managed to find work again so quickly.

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