Ball State University's Computing Services fixed an e-mail problem Monday night that delayed incoming mail to the Ball State server during the weekend and on Monday. Delivery of mail from other e-mail providers, like Google and Yahoo!, was delayed because people were hacking into unprotected computers and then using them to connect to the Ball State e-mail server for extended periods of time, tying up the server, Loren Malm, assistant director of security, policy, systems and assessment, said.
Normally, when an e-mail is sent to Ball State the server is only being used for a couple of milliseconds, Malm said. Because of the short periods of time, six or seven connections at any one time is considered busy normally, he said. However, because of hackers logging onto the server and staying there, the server had 19,000 connections at one point, he said.
Computers get hacked when people don't use anti-virus software or firewalls, he said. When people buy modems or connect to the Internet and aren't protecting their computers, a third party can gain access to the computer in a few minutes, Malm said. The person attacking the computer can install and run software without the owner even knowing anything is going on. He said someone was probably trying to see how many computers it would take to cause a delay in Ball State's and other organizations' Web sites. Sometimes people will run these types of tests to see what it takes to shut down a site in preparation for shutting down another site they are targeting in the future.
Mail sent from one Ball State user to another while on campus was not affected, as that mail never goes through the Internet.
The biggest problem in trying to fix the error was finding a way to identify which connections were bogus and which were being used for legitimate purposes, Malm said. The university worked with Microsoft and Symantec corps. to find a way to kick off the zombie hosts, which just take up space on the server, he said.
Alex Chalmers, lead enterprise systems and security architect, said Ball State was bringing in an additional server and using a newer version of Symantec's software to correct the problem.
As of 8 p.m. Monday, Malm said the Ball State e-mail server was processing incoming mail and people should have received all delayed e-mails by today.
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