Australia makes crucial step in war on spam

Australia, already regarded as the world's champion of anti-spam law, has taken the latest step in outlawing unsolicited bulk email with the introduction of a Code of Practice which, among other measures, will force ISPs to be more proactive in stamping out spam.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) is building upon the relative success of the country's 2003 Spam Act to ensure businesses and consumers are protected from a deluge of unwanted email.

The Code of Practice document, the first of its kind in the world, states: "The phenomenon of spam... continues to materially impact on email as a communications medium."

It's a problem many countries have recognised but few have been able to react to effectively. However, it's long been suggested that internet service providers, who carry much of the email, could solve the problem of spam overnight and now the Australian government is doing its bit to test that notion.

The Code states: "Since senders of spam require the services of service providers in order to send their spam, enlisting the support of those service providers has the potential of being an efficient and also a more proactive way of addressing the spam problem."

As such, spam filters must be offered and clearly advertised by all ISPs serving the Australian public. More importantly the ISPs must proactively scan traffic for open relays and botnets - networks of compromised PCs used for sending spam.

ISPs must also include clauses in all contracts that allow them to disconnect a user if they are knowingly or unwittingly relaying spam once the ISP has taken "reasonable steps to notify the subscriber of the breach and provide[d] reasonable assistance".

In addition, ISPs must restrict inbound connections to any service that allows forwarding of email on behalf of third parties, with the threat of penalties or sanctions if they do not follow any part of the code.

Simon Perry, VP security strategy at CA, told silicon.com he believes the laws are a positive move and added that although Australian citizens will now be better protected, global co-operation along similar lines could make a real difference to total worldwide levels of spam.

Perry said: "Only a joined-up exercise internationally will close all the doors."