Spam Battles Have Been Won, But the War Continues

The call to stop spam has become deafening. As the spam problem continues to grow, so does the number of organizations and governments pushing for their respective legislation to curb this online nuisance. The United States and the EU nations have been very aggressive from the start in paving the way for the creation of anti-spam legislation, even coming up with agreements for international cooperation with regarding this matter. Other countries have also followed suit given the international scope of the problem.

But despite the tremendous effort exerted by these nations to curtail spammers’ tactics, new techniques and methods are still being discovered every day. Spam e-mails are not just plain commercial messages anymore. They are now used to commit different crimes like deceiving recipients into divulging sensitive information and spreading harmful viruses to tamper with people’s computer systems.

It seems that every step towards spam eradication is matched by two steps backwards due to new schemes adopted by spammers. The only way we can see real progress in arriving to a solution is when a complete collaboration of technology and legislation is made, with the help of all sectors of society. This would probably be hard to achieve, but not impossible. Hopefully, we can all work together for it to happen in the near future before spam takes over the information highway.

Special Feature     Anti-Spam Sites Targeted by New Mimail Variant

United States of America     CAN-SPAM Act Approved by Congress

Europe     New EU Anti-Spam Directive Enforced     MPs Propose to Extradite Overseas Spammers

Asia - Pacific     Singapore Goes for Opt-Out Approach to Curb Spam     Australian Anti-Spam Bill Gets a Thumbs-up from the     Senate

International News     Brazil Comes Up with Anti-Spam Ethics Code     Ireland and Sweden Adhere to New EU Directive

Opinion    Spam As A Source of Worms and Viruses

Letters To The Editor

Anti-Spam Sites Targeted by New Mimail Variant

Anti-spam organizations are the latest target of a new Internet worm outbreak that tries to drive them offline with the barrage of huge data. Virus experts believe that the worm, W32/Mimail-L, is the work of spammers bent on paralyzing organizations that are very vocal about their work against spam.

Mimail typically spreads as an attachment to a pornographic e-mail claiming to come from a woman called Wendy. Clicking on the attachment activates the virus. Once triggered, the worm forwards itself to other e-mail users and reprograms computers to launch a denial of service (DOS) attack.

Sometimes, an alternative e-mail is sent claiming that the recipient's credit card details have been debited, and that a selection of child porn CDs will be delivered to them. Recipients will have to write to the given email address of a reputable anti-spam organization, if they wish to 'cancel' this bogus kiddie porn order.

Anti-spam websites on the virus's list include those operated by SpamCop, SPEWS and The Spamhaus Project. According to The Spamhaus Project founder Steve Linford, by “joe-jobbing” the anti-spam organizations or sending out spam fraudulently claiming to be sent by the organization, the spammer is clearly hoping to overload their servers with email complaints from angry email users.

Source: reuters.co.uk, theregister.co.uk, ZDNet UK

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CAN-SPAM Act Approved by Congress

After more than 6 years of failed attempts to create a national anti-spam legislation, the U.S. has come close to having its first federal law against spam with the approval of the "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act" or CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

Stiffening an anti-spam bill approved by the Senate, the compromise version of the bill imposes an "opt out" standard requiring commercial e-mailers to include in their e-mail a physical address, an honest subject line, a working opt-out mechanism, and notice that messages are advertisements. Any e-mail with sexually explicit content must have a warning label in the subject line.

Violators are subject to a maximum five-year prison sentence, statutory damages of $2 million for violations, tripled to $6 million for intentional violations and unlimited damages for fraud and abuse. The legislation would also empower, but not require, the Federal Trade Commission to establish a national "do-not-spam" list similar to its anti-telemarketing "do-not-call" list.

Source: reuters.co.uk, washingtonpost.com, bizreport.com, dc.internet.com, linuxworld.com, nytimes.com, CNET News.com, zdnet.com, silicon.com, DMNews.com, spamhaus.org

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New EU Anti-Spam Directive Enforced

The European Union recently put into effect its new anti-spam directive that aims to implement legislation banning unsolicited commercial e-mail across Europe. The new directive enforces restrictions protecting European people’s privacy as well as anti-spam provisions requiring companies to follow an opt-in approach to e-mail marketing. The directive lets member states determine the kind of enforcement, but requires remedies that allow consumers to claim damages.

The European Commission has also started legal action against nine EU states for failing to write into national law the implementation of the directives. Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Sweden, Luxembourg and Finland have all missed the October 31 deadline.

The Commission's move is the first step of legal action that could end in the European Court of Justice, the EU's top court. The EU states are given two months to provide explanation or face possible court action.

Source: DMNews.com, silicon.com, BBC News, Reuters

MPs Propose to Extradite Overseas Spammers

The UK is now taking another approach in fighting the war against spam. MPs are now planning to stop spam flooding in London from overseas by extraditing spammers and putting them into trial in the United Kingdom.

Officials from UK have been in talks with the FBI, since a majority of spam emails come from the United States, and the latter has given their cooperation on the matter. Initially, extradition would focus on targeting spammers but would eventually expand to include suspects in other cybercrime cases such as virus writing and hacking.

Source: uk.news.yahoo.com, Reuters

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Singapore Goes for Opt-Out Approach to Curb Spam

In an aim to curb unsolicited e-mails and SMS messages in the country, Singapore’s Direct Marketing Associate or DMAS is setting up an "opt-out" list to fight spam.

DMAS will set up a website that lets consumers and companies sign up if they want to be excluded from direct marketing materials including e-mail and SMS. The DMAS, together with the IDA and the Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, will also be coming up with guidelines against spam.

Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SITF) estimates that e-mail spam costs the country between $20 million and $50million in lost productivity a year.

Source: The Business Times online edition

Australian Anti-Spam Bill Gets a Thumbs-up from the Senate

Australia moves closer to having anti-spam law legislation, with the Spam Act 2003 having been approved by the Senate. Still awaiting the governor general’s approval, the bill bans the sending of spam in Australia, or to an address accessed in Australia. However, government bodies, registered political parties, charities, religious organizations, and educational institutions are exempted from the bill.

Customer consent, which can be directly obtained or inferred through a business relationship, is required before a commercial e-mail may be sent. Under the new laws, all commercial e-mails must provide receivers with an "unsubscribe" option. The Act also bans the supply, acquisition or use of software that harvests e-mail addresses from the Internet to send spam.

Under the bill, the Australian Communications Authority will have the power to fine individuals to up to $22,000, while corporations a maximum of $110,000 per day. Repeat violators are subject to fines of up to $1 million. The ACA will also be given authority to enforce undertakings, issue formal warnings, court injunctions, infringement notices and seek court-imposed penalties. The ACA is already establishing a "dedicated unit" which will enforce the Act that will assume responsibility for regulating the e-marketing industry, and will cooperate with international bodies in sharing intelligence and information about "spam-related activities".

Source: smh.com.au, DMNews.com, heraldsun.news.com.au, ZDNet Australia

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Brazil Comes Up With Anti-Spam Ethics Code

The Brazilian Anti-Spam Committee, composed of a group of private associations involved with the Internet business, recently launched an anti-spam campaign by setting up a strict code of ethics for advertisers or e-mail marketers.

The Anti-spam Ethics Code obliges advertisers to identify themselves, observe truth-in-advertising principles and give recipients an ‘opt out’ option from marketing mailings. A website has also been provided which enables consumers to express their complaints online about spam advertisers, and to know who the worst offenders are.

The code of ethics does not provide fines for violations. However, based on current federal laws, the code hopes to lead to the unblocking of Brazilian IPs from blacklists and Mail Abuse Prevention Systems abroad as currently, many international servers block IPs from Brazil because of the numerous spam coming from the country.

Source: the associated press, Australian IT (australianitnews.com), theinquirer.net

Ireland and Sweden Adhere to New EU Directive

Two European countries are bringing into force the new EU directive that aims to harmonize member country laws concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of Internet privacy.

Spearheaded by Communications Minister Dermot Ahern, the Irish government is outlawing unsolicited e-mails and text messages to the public originating within the European Union. The new law strengthens database regulations, requiring database operators to inform people that their information is being used and why it is being utilized. The law also allows Data Protection Commissioner and ComReg to investigate breaches. Any violation of the law entails a maximum fine of EUR3,000 per e-mail.

Meanwhile, the Swedish government has tabled a draft law that would allow it to go after spammers who flood email inboxes with unsolicited commercial e-mails. After reaching an agreement with the Leftist party, the government proposed changing the country's advertising law, allowing it to issue fines of up to five million kronor ($673,000) to spammers. The new rules are set to take effect on April 1, 2004.

Source: Agence France-Presse, electricnews.net, news.scotsman.com

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Opinion

Opinions From Inspector Mails Inspector Mails is the AI entity for Bigfoot's Anti-SPAM Solution. He will be giving regular updates on his opinions on current anti-SPAM trends.

Spam as a Source of Worms and Viruses

As if wasted time and overloaded inboxes are not enough, more and more virus writers are resorting to spamming techniques in distributing harmful worms and viruses to cause damage to thousands of computer recipients.

In recent months we have seen several variants of the SoBig and Mimail worms, among others, that were disguised as e-mail attachments and sent to unknowing victims. The spammers’ main objective was to spread these worms and viruses to a large number of computers in the hopes of launching a distributed denial of service attacks against their adversaries—prominent spam blacklist sites and anti-spam organizations—and knock them offline.

So what should we do when e-mails of this type are received? The most basic thing that every user can do is to avoid opening e-mail messages or file attachments coming from people they do not know, or at least be wary of them. But users can’t be expected to spend all day sorting through suspected spam mails. Spam filtering could not and should not stop at the personal level if the long-term goal is to eradicate spam mails.

Varied approaches to controlling spam have already been proposed and implemented. Awareness and legislative measures are just some of them. However, for a solution to be truly effective, it has to be as dynamic as spam. Bigfoot Anti-Spam Solution offers a new spam-filtering technology that is very much dynamic and adaptive as it quickly “learns” or detects spam patterns and adapts its filters simultaneously. Powered by SpamChaser, the new Bigfoot Anti-Spam takes on a multi-level approach to spam filtering, which allows the users to have total control over their inboxes again.

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