NHS IT bod sends test email to 850k users – and then responses are sent 'reply all' A test email sent by accident to 850,000 NHS workers has caused utter chaos after being sent from an apparently incorrectly configured* email distribution list. The sender, whom The Register will identify only as R, sent the blank message with a subject line that simply read "test" to a distribution list called …
The Helpdesk for NHS Mail is based in India. A friend's response to a call to them when the problem started resulted in a suggestion that there was a problem with the ISP and that they should email in a screenshot of the problem. No amount of explaining that the email was down so he couldn't email in a screenshot got him anywhere. Well, at least an Indian support desk is cheap!
Ah, happy memories. Must have been 15 or more years ago and I worked for....a certain national broadcasting company a stone's throw from Shepherd's Bush in London.
Some secretary somewhere, bless her heart, seriously, she was going to trek across the South Pole, and all for a Good Cause.
I think she probably asked her manager if she could "Send an email round" asking for sponsorship. And probably he said "Of course, good for you!". There followed her artful bit of shift-clicking to select the entire global address list, and a heartfelt plea sent to thousands of mailboxes.
Not as many users as the current NHS fracas I guess, but nonetheless including everyone from Broadcast in Bristol to the Newsdesk in Nairobi.
So it's late-shift on the User Admin service desk, the most excitement one could hope for was maybe resetting Zoe Ball's password (yes I did once).... I'm naively chuckling at this message sent to Everyone, and then I watch with dawning horror as the Reply Alls start to come in...
It wasn't too bad at first, a few encouraging "Jolly good for you!" and "I'm in for 5 quid" replies...but when it all went south (haha) was when some Wag replied with a mocking message along lines of "Ooh, I'm so good and clever, please give me a gold star made of real gold, everyone look at me" etc.
Then of course some right-minded folks had to upbraid him for his uncharitable (literally) attitude.
Then some other Wags had to jump in, commend his Waggishness, and add more Waggishness of their own to the fray.
And all Reply-All, Ad Infinitum, of course.
Our turn-of-the-century Exchange servers had blocked queues for ...a day at least? Seemed longer at the time...
But the Microsoft Mail servers, as I recall an email header with >256 characters simply crashed the server. That took a little longer to sort out. Probably some of those users are still waiting on their emails even today.
For years afterwards, mention of the "South Pole Incident" would cause email admins to clutch their lunchtime pints with white knuckles and mutter something like "if that happens again I'm moving to the South Pole meself"....
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Because MS introduced Mailtips in 2007 which, if enabled and done correctly* would warn people that they're about to send an email to everyone/recipients that are on the list outside of their organisation/to a large number of recipients etc etc etc
*Yes...I know that's a rarity for many places, not just public sector.
They should consider themselves lucky.
What if the original message had been sent requesting DELIVERY confirmation back to the list?
850k x 850k messages all hitting the system at once. Would make 3 hour delays on email look like luxury!
Just saying.
(Saw this on a netware system back in 1990. Nasty mess)
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