Anilrgowda

Europe calls for concerted fight against spam
By Tom Espiner
November 28, 2006, 12:24 PM PT

The European Commission has called on governments, regulators, Internet service providers and businesses to step up the fight against spam, spyware and malicious software. Despite existing EU legislation to outlaw spam, Europe continues to "suffer from illegal online activities from inside the EU and from third countries," the Commission said in an announcement on Tuesday.

It wants national authorities to step up their actions to prosecute illegal online activities. "It is time to turn the repeated political concern about spam into concrete actions to fight spam," said Viviane Reding, the Commissioner for Information Society and Media. "In line with EU legislation outlawing spam, the Dutch authorities have managed to cut domestic spam by 85 percent," Reding added.

"I'd like to see other countries achieving similar results through more efficient enforcement. I will revisit this issue again next year to see whether additional legislative measures against spam are required." The Commission acknowledged that spam has gone from being a nuisance to a major conduit of criminal activity, which is damaging legitimate online services.

Spam e-mails can contain links to phishing sites that attempt to trick people into revealing sensitive financial details, or links to sites hosting malicious software, such as keyloggers or other spyware. Legislative tools to fight these threats exist, the Commission said.