ISPA Publishes Recommendations to Beat Spam

UK's leading Internet commerce association, The Internet Services Providers' Association has released a set of new recommendations for ISPs relating to unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE) commonly called 'spam'.

Spam inundates the Internet by distributing several copies of a particular message. These messages arrive as forced e-mails on people. The majority of spam advertises commercial products often dubious in nature. Spam may also advertise get-rich-fast schemes, or quasi-legal services. The sender of spam spends very little; the recipient or the carrier of the message bears most of the expenses of the spam.

Spam is mainly of two types making different impact on people using the Internet. One is Cancelable Usenet spam in which spammers send one message to about 20 Usenet newsgroups. The second type of spam targets persons directly, with e-mail messages. Scanning Usenet postings, stealing mailing addresses, or searching the Internet for e-mail ids are common sources to compile spam mail lists.

Spam has increased rapidly since 2004. Spam frustrates nine in ten users while one in 100 seems to be "at the breaking point".

The new suggestions make the latest series of best current practices (BCP) that guides ISPA members in different areas.

According to ISPA, the Internet industry, the governments, law enforcement bodies and most importantly end-users should put in their efforts to fight out spam effectively. UBE BCP's self-regulatory measures should have the support of effective laws that can help to take action against spammers who persist in their activities.

ISPs find UBE a major problem and they are trying ways to deal with it, explains Jessica Hendrie-Liano, Chairperson of ISPA Council. ISPs are curbing UBE by not allowing UBE traffic meant for illegal third-parties to pass through their e-mail systems. They also ensure that they can trace the source of all e-mail generating from their networks. Technologynewsdaily published Hendrie-Liano's remarks on April 15, 2007.

Mrs. Hendrie-Liano continued to say that ISPs despise spam because it eats up precious bandwidth, compromises network integrity, and affects the work of mail servers. Fighting spam bears heavily on ISPs and their consumers costing large amounts of money and time.

Related article: ISP Association Issues Recommendations On Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 4/27/2007