[Editors] Fwd: Are you in the MIT Aeronautics/Astronautics Department?

[David L Chandler]

This is intriguing, and I look forward to hearing what the IS&T folks find out. But I just wanted to point out that unlike other top-level domains, registering an .edu domain doesn't cost anything, but is very tightly restricted -- there is only one registrar in the world that can do so, and registration is very tightly limited to accredited academic institutions. In fact, the rules specifically forbid registering any "generic" domains, which seems to include academia.edu. That suggests to me that they must have had to jump through some serious hoops to get an exception.
I looked at the site, and it certainly appears legitimate.

-------------------------------
David L. Chandler
Energy, engineering and materials science writer
MIT News Office
room 11-400
(617) 253-2704

________________________________________
From: editors-bounces at MIT.EDU [editors-bounces at MIT.EDU] On Behalf Of Bill Litant [wlitant at MIT.EDU]
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 11:09 AM
To: Monique Yeaton
Cc: editors at mit.edu; engineering-communicators at mit.edu
Subject: Re: [Editors] Fwd: Are you in the MIT Aeronautics/Astronautics Department?

Thanks, Monica. I'm curious to see what you guys come up with. It is reassuring to know that my repeated warnings to my department about phishing, etc are sinking in and faculty/staff now often send me suspicious emails (and visitors, but that's another story ...) before accessing/responding.

Best,
Bill

William T.G. Litant
communications director
Aeronautics and Astronautics Department
and
Partnership for AiR Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
37-395
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

On Mar 26, 2010, at 10:37 AM, Monique Yeaton wrote:

> I am on the IT Security team in IS&T. This looks very fishy to me. I'll run it by my security analysts.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Monique
>
> =========================
> Monique Yeaton
> IT Security Awareness Consultant
> MIT Information Services & Technology (IS&T)
> (617) 253-2715
> http://ist.mit.edu/security
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mar 26, 2010, at 10:32 AM, Violeta Ivanova wrote:
>
>> Bill et al.,
>>
>> I would forward this to IS&T for security check. It seems very fishy to me. I would not follow any of the links in the original email.
>>
>> A domain name such as academia.edu must cost an arm and a leg. If this is "legit", they must pay post-docs really well in Oxford. :)
>>
>> Happy Friday!
>>
>> Violeta
>>
>> __
>>
>> Violeta M. Ivanova Ph.D.
>> http://web.mit.edu/violeta/www
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mar 26, 2010, at 8:55 AM, Bill Litant wrote:
>>
>>> Dear all:
>>> An AeroAstro faculty member received this, forwarded it to me, and asked if it is "legit." From my examination, while it appears to be in its nascent stages, it looks like the developer put some serious time and thought into the site. While it's too early to tell if there will be any value to the site, I can't think of any reason not to tell him to avoid placing his name on it. Have any of you had any contact with this person or know anything else about the site?
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> B ill
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Subject: Are you in the MIT
>>>> Aeronautics/Astronautics Department?
>>>> Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:22:20 -0700 (PDT)
>>>> From: Richard Price <richard.price at academia.edu>
>>>>
>>>> I am post-doc in philosophy at Oxford. I am
>>>> also the founder of Academia.edu, which is a
>>>> global directory of academics, showing who is
>>>> working at what departments.
>>>>
>>>> We are trying to fill out the directory, and
>>>> already Stephen Hawking, Paul Krugman, Noam
>>>> Chomsky and Richard Dawkins have signed up.
>>>> We checked your department directory and we
>>>> think you fit into the directory in the MIT
>>>> Aeronautics/Astronautics Department, but we
>>>> aren't sure. Your status is currently listed
>>>> as 'Unknown'. Could you confirm that you are
>>>> a member of this department by following one
>>>> of the links below?
>>>>
>>>> Yes, I am in the MIT Aeronautics/Astronautics
>>>> Department:
>>>> http://mit.academia.edu/Yes-Jonathan-P-How-is-a-member-of-MIT-Aeronautics-Astronautics
>>>>
>>>> No, the department directory is incorrect, I
>>>> am not in the MIT Aeronautics/Astronautics
>>>> Department:
>>>> http://mit.academia.edu/Remove-Jonathan-P-How-from-MIT-Aeronautics-Astronautics
>>>>
>>>> There are currently 4 other members who have
>>>> confirmed their membership of MIT Aeronautics
>>>> Astronautics: Javier Garcia, Buy Lortab,
>>>> Jorge Cañizales and Kiril Sakaliyski.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Richard
>>>> http://oxford.academia.edu/RichardPrice
>>>>
>>>> ---------------------------
>>>>
>>>> Academia.edu's office is at: 2140 Taylor St,
>>>> #806, San Francisco, CA, 94133. To opt out of
>>>> receiving these kinds of emails from
>>>> Academia.edu, go to:
>>>>
>>>> http://academia.edu/optout/574327d927c971e0edc7bb044a6a37ec
>>>>
>>>
>>>
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>










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