Network: Bytes - Government clips Pegasus' wings

A mistake by a US government Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CIAC) security bulletin has led to some users of the popular e-mail program Pegasus having their mail blocked by Internet service providers (ISPs) that use bulk e-mail filtering blacklists. The program was mistakenly identified as a bulk e-mail package and potential source of junk e-mail. System administrators were advised to block any mail with Pegasus headers in a CIAC bulletin that was intended for Energy Department use, but circulated widely among network administrators across the Net.

CIAC has since updated the bulletin, but in the meantime some ISPs have added Pegasus to their anti-spam filters. Pegasus Mail for Windows v2.55 - posted last week at http://risc.ua.edu./pegasus - gets around the problem of mistaken blocking by not identifying Pegasus as the creator in its e-mail header.

"To say that I am angry and upset that it should be necessary for me to make this release is a terrific understatement," David Harris, the program's author, said in a statement to Pegasus users. "Especially since I am currently the only major e-mail developer with a strong anti-spam stance. It seems preposterous and ironic to me that I alone seem to have been singled out in this way."