Duplicate Emails Problem

On 14th November an email was sent to a large number of Brokers who had downloaded the Norwich Union Risk Services Business Continuity Template via the e-broking website. This communication was requesting feedback on this service. It was sent from Norwich Union Risk Services and titled 'Business Continuity Research - Your Chance to Win an iPod Nano from Norwich Union Risk Services'.

This email has had some unforeseen consequences for those to whom it was sent. Many of the recipients have received multiple copies of this email. However these multiple emails are not originating from Norwich Union. There is now no way for Norwich Union to stop this email being forwarded as it is not from our servers.

The reason that the multiple emails have been received appears to relate to a problem with Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Software. Details of how this problem occurs are available at the Microsoft web site

The issue that has caused these emails is due to Servers being used without Microsoft patch number kb835734. Essentially the server receiving an email with a large number of recipients erroneously forwards the email to all of the other recipients of the original email as if it had come from the original sender. Where more than one server has not been patched this causes a loop, where the number of emails increases dramatically.

All servers running Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 will keep responding to emails being received until they have the appropriate patch applied. Having a patched server does not prevent you receiving more emails, it does mean that you are not sending any. A number of brokers have had success stopping emails being received by blocking them in their Anti-virus software by scanning the mail for the title.

We, along with our suppliers are attempting to identify the remaining sources of the emails and will be attempting to contact them over the coming days.