We’ve been having plenty of stormy weather over the past few days, so in keeping with the theme, did you know you even get e-mail storms?
“An email storm is a sudden spike of Reply All messages on an email distribution list, usually caused by a controversial or misdirected message. Such storms start when multiple members of the distribution list reply to the entire list at the same time in response to the instigating message. Other members soon respond, usually adding vitriol to the discussion, asking to be removed from the list, or pleading for the cessation of messages. If enough members reply to these unwanted messages this triggers a chain reaction of email messages. The sheer load of traffic generated by these storms can render the email servers inoperative, similar to a DDoS attack.
A related phenomenon occurs when a subscriber to a mailing list emails the mailing list to “UNSUBSCRIBE”. People will reply to the hapless individual on the mailing list, half of them advising on how to unsubscribe, the other half referring to the manual of the mailing list manager. More subscribers will reply to the previous round of respondents, again to the list, this time about mailing list etiquette.
Some email viruses also have the capacity to create email storms, by sending copies of themselves to an infected user’s contacts, including distribution lists, infecting the contacts in turn.”
[SOURCE: www.wikipedia.org]
