New Climate Institute Claims Microsoft is “Unjustly” Quarantining Their Emails

Essay by Eric Worrall

Trojan, virus, hack or Microsoft defect?

MICROSOFT ERROR OR EXTERNAL ATTACK CAUSING DISRUPTION TO EMAIL COMMUNICATION ACROSS THE CLIMATE CHANGE COMMUNITY

Publication date 27 Oct 2023

Since 17 October, to our knowledge any email with the NewClimate URL (newclimate dot org) in the email body, link, signature, reply header or contained anywhere in an attachment is unjustifiably quarantined by Microsoft email servers without any notice, regardless of who sends or receives the email.

That our own email flow is disrupted is the least of our problems: all Microsoft tenants are afflicted by the same issue when this URL appears in their emails, or any attachments they share, even when we are not a party to the communications.

Read more: https://newclimate.org/news/microsoft-error-or-external-attack-causing-disruption-to-email-communication-across-the

I feel a bit sorry for them, having your email system arbitrarily shut down is an unpleasant experience.

But they really should read some help pages on what to do. Microsoft in particular provides clear guidance on what to do if their system accidentally flags you as spam.

Their SPF record looks reasonable:

“v=spf1 +a include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf.mandrillapp.com -all”

The SPF record is an entry on your website DNS registration which tells other email servers who is allowed to send legitimate emails on your behalf. New Climate’s SPF record means anything on their own domain server (+a), outlook or mandrilapp.com (a mass email provider) is allowed to send emails on behalf of new climate.

All internet exposed websites are under continuous attack by automated malware bots, so it is possible either one of these bots found a weakness, or they innocently tripped the paranoid hair trigger of one of today’s email systems.

I also ran their site through a malware checker, which didn’t spot any malware. When websites are infected one of the first things which tends to happen is they start sprouting malware on all their web pages. Though sometimes the malware is sneaky and only appears at random intervals, so the malware test is not definitive.

I wish new climate good luck restoring their email system. I believe a big part of the solution to the climate panic is better communication between all parties, so if interrupting new climate’s communications is a deliberate act, it is a deplorable and heinous act which does no good for anyone.

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Jim Karlock
October 28, 2023 2:13 am

 so if interrupting new climate’s communications is a deliberate act, it is a deplorable and heinous act which does no good for anyone”
Isn’t that standard operating procedure for the climate crazies?

Reply to  Eric Worrall
October 28, 2023 5:04 am

Microsoft reports record profits. Shares jump up

Its AI is so successful, it gets record business from the world economy destroyers, aka climate idiots, who are gleeful to have such a powerful ally, to help them screw the sane side

Reply to  Eric Worrall
October 28, 2023 5:35 am

OTOH since Twitter transmogrified to X it has become very difficult to view current tweets for anyone who is not signed up. I used to monitor a few handles in a clutch of browser tabs, but that is no longer functional.

Reply to  It doesnot add up
October 28, 2023 8:23 am

For me, it was getting worse even before Musk took over.

MarkW
Reply to  Jim Karlock
October 28, 2023 7:56 am

Not just the climate crazies, but the left in general.

They have convinced themselves that anything they disagree with is either hate speech or misinformation and both must be eliminated, with extreme prejudice.

strativarius
October 28, 2023 2:15 am

Powered by Microsoft Joke….

Reply to  strativarius
October 28, 2023 6:47 am

Monitored & controlled more like

October 28, 2023 2:26 am

I just sent a test email containing that URL to myself, and it came back flagged as junk. I suspect the URL has been added to a spam keyword list somewhere along the line.

michael hart
Reply to  PariahDog
October 28, 2023 2:39 am

Yes. My question was is an AI spam or ‘inappropriate content’ check used at any step?

I’ve had comments removed by the BBC (they are normally quite reasonable, even about their climate twaddle). They were on-topic, contained no obvious bad words, but expressed opinions counter to the prevailing narrative about Russia/Ukraine.

But they were removed so quickly it is unlikely they were removed due to human intervention.

SteveE
Reply to  Eric Worrall
October 28, 2023 5:04 am

If only it was as simple as spam keywords or the domain name. Microsoft often blocks email based on things you have no control over. Here’s the key sentence from a recent message delivery failure message I got from msn:

Please contact your Internet service provider since part of their network is on our block list (S3150).

Made no difference that the sending server has proper SPF and DKIM records. Microsoft has determined that a reputable ISP with close to a million ip addresses doesn’t meet Microsoft’s standards.

strativarius
October 28, 2023 3:31 am

EVs continue to prove problematic…

“”Embracing electric cars is proving much more complicated than Hertz anticipated.

The car-rental giant is hitting the brakes on a wide-ranging plan to integrate more electric vehicles into its fleet as it runs into challenges like high repair costs and depreciation””
https://www.businessinsider.nl/hertzs-embrace-of-teslas-isnt-going-so-well/

Reply to  strativarius
October 28, 2023 4:30 am

Going to that link I see a “Consent to Cookies & Data processing on Business Insider” which isn’t obvious how to get rid of that without approving of their cookies- which I won’t do. Rather obnoxious of any web site.

strativarius
Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
October 28, 2023 4:34 am

Should I include a cookie warning with the links I provide?

I’ll leave it up to the demos on WUWT to decide.

Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
October 28, 2023 5:08 am

No problem here with Firefox (115.0esr (64bit)) with Ghostery and Adblocker Ultimate

One or both of both handles cookies automatically, sometimes a pop-up appears for a few moments while they think about it, and after that you’re in.
Don’t even get that here

Reply to  Peta of Newark
October 28, 2023 11:25 am

I have an adblocker on Firefox and I keep getting a message, which I ignore, from Youtube that adblockers are not allowed on Youtube. Tough sh*t.

Tom Johnson
Reply to  strativarius
October 28, 2023 4:45 am

I just returned from a business trip to LA where I rented a car from Hertz. The cheapest cars on their website were EVs. For a second, or two, I considered one. Two issues said: no. Actually, it was NO! In an unfamiliar city, I had no idea where to find charging stations, and had no time to waste charging it anyway. Secondly, I didn’t want to pay extra to return it ’empty’ and didn’t have time to waste charting it before returning it even if I could find one.

Of course, there was likely a way for the car to suggest charging stations. That’s one of those tasks that is simple to do when you know how to do it, and impossible to do if you don’t know how to do it. You have to know what word the geek, while sitting in his mom’s basement in his pajamas programming the display, used in the index to describe how to find ‘charging stations’.

strativarius
Reply to  Tom Johnson
October 28, 2023 5:45 am

The cheapest cars on their website were EVs.”

Now that flies in the face of economic reality from purchase price through to insurance costs etc.

Tom Johnson
Reply to  strativarius
October 28, 2023 7:30 am

Given all the crime in LA, I was required by my company to insure the car with Hertz. The insurance cost was within a couple of bucks of the daily rental rate. both were around $50 per day. It seemed to be constant, not varying with the daily rental cost. I’m quite sure that the EVs were the cheapest because they were rarely rented, not because their sticker price was low.

MarkW
Reply to  strativarius
October 28, 2023 1:57 pm

By the time a car reaches the rental lot, the purchase price is sunk cost. All that matters is trying to get some money out of the cars. The fact that they are so cheap to rent indicates that very few people are selecting these cars, even to rent.

The amount of profit that is made from these cars will determine whether replace these cars with other electrics or go back to ICE.

Lee Riffee
Reply to  Tom Johnson
October 28, 2023 6:30 am

Might have been cheap because few people were renting them….I know I’d pick a gas powered car over an EV to rent every time, no matter where I was.

Reply to  strativarius
October 28, 2023 6:53 am

I read somewhere last week , which I can’t find now, that problems with rental cars had impacted the Tesla share price.

Reply to  strativarius
October 28, 2023 3:54 pm

G’Day Strativarius,

electric vehicles into its fleet…

From the Sydney Morning Herald, Oct 25, Morning Edition:

Uber is importing 10,000 electric vehicles from China that it intends to issue to drivers under a rent-to-buy scheme.

mikelowe2013
Reply to  strativarius
October 29, 2023 11:50 am

No surprise. With high mileage being built up by hirers with no long-term interests, depreciation will very quickly reach 100% – even over fairly short lives. Having bought several ex-lease vehicles in the past with no unexpected repercussions, the EV formulation changes EVERYTHING!

observa
October 28, 2023 4:31 am

Well I have an @outlook.com email address and an ISP one and running Windows 11 and Office 365 I’ve recently discovered with 2 regular contacts they no longer receive my @outlook.com emails and neither do I receive theirs although conversing with my ISP email address works fine. No error messages or anything with @outlook.com as both their emails and mine appear to disappear into the ether. Anyone?

October 28, 2023 6:46 am

Unsure why any one these days, concerned with security, privacy & freedom of thought & speech, uses legacy SM – Google, MS, Meta etc all harvest your life, use your personal data, target any comms they deem misinformation, restrict your access, restrict your searches etc etc etc
Stop feeding the nefarious beast working against you

October 28, 2023 11:32 am

I seen Facebook remove innocuous links including a family genealogy site. This is the result of computer software goofing up

Jackdaw
October 28, 2023 12:31 pm

A non story, I suspect.
I’ve just sent myself an email, I have two email addresses, with newclimate.org in the header and text body. It went straight to the inbox of my second email address.