IGF - Anti-spam bodies form new alliance

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 31 Oct 2006 at 18:00

International anti-spam bodies have joined together to launch www.stopspamalliance.org - a central resource to inform anyone with an interest in fighting spam.

The site includes information on anti-spam laws and enforcement activities, consumer and business education, best practices for fighting spam, and international co-operation.

Parties looking to participate in the fight against spam can use the website as a single point of entry to find out what other organisations are doing in this area. They can use it to publicise or find out about upcoming events and papers on the issue.

Governments can access it to inform how they develop their own anti-spam legislation and the private sector can form best practice policies based on information on the site from those that have already done so, said Claudia Sarrocco of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s Information and Communications Policy Division. That way they can avoid the pitfalls experienced by those that have already implemented these ideas.

'We know there's no simple single solution to fight spam, and the OECD's work on the anti-spam toolkit stressed the importance of a holistic approach to combating spam,' said Claudia Sarrocco of the OECD. 'International organisations could and should work together more effectively against spammers, and this initiative will help them do that.'

As part of the launch, the Internet Governance Forum will run an anti-spam toolkit workshop tomorrow, highlighting the strategies available to combat the problem.

The problem of spam has yet to be adequately tackled. Anti-spam outfit SoftScan said today that levels for October have risen dramatically of late to more than 89 per cent. While the ratio of spam to legitimate mail is normally higher during the summer months and at weekends when the levels of business mail is lower, the recent burst appears to be down to an increase in spam volumes, according to the company.

In comparison, virus levels trundled along at 0.44 per cent during October.

Part of the issue comes down to how ISPs handle spam mail. 'It's a delicate question,' said Sarrocco. 'The role of ISPs is an interesting one, particularly in developing countries, because they can act as intermediaries. So the issue is not just about filtering incoming mail but also outgoing.'

The toolkit workshop tomorrow will offer strategies for ISPs to create codes of conduct and best practices to help them avoid having governments hand out legislation.

Sarracco said that this kind of dovetailed initiative has been implemented successfully in Australia, with co-ordination between government and ISPs resulting in the latter drawing up much tougher best practice terms than the government would have stipulated in the first place.

Although announced in time for the Internet Governance Forum, www.stopspamalliance.org is the result of years of work, stemming from meetings at the World Summit on Information Society in Tunis last year and sessions between the OECD and the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) in Calgary.

Shamsul Shafie, Chair of the APEC SPSG, said that 'APEC welcomes the initiative. Work against Spam cannot be successful without strong co-operation between regional organisations and among both private and public stakeholders. The website will allow users from every corner of the globe to share information on how best to combat Spam.'